On 22 February, Belgian composer Henry Vieuxtemps (1820-1881) will once more be honoured during a midday concert at the Royal Belgian Library, when his Fantaisie sur Faust de Gounod will be performed. The signed score of this work was able to be acquired by the King Baudouin Foundation in 2011 as part of an exceptional ensemble of 32 scores by Vieuxtemps.
It was thanks to the initiative of Marie Cornaz, Head of the Musicology Department at the Belgian Royal Library, that the dispersion of these unique documents could be avoided. Thanks to the Manoël de la Serna Fund, another signed and totally unknown score by Henry Vieuxtemps will join the other scores, this one of his only opera La fiancée de Messine.
Fantaisie sur Faust de Gounod, in D minor, was composed in 1869 for violin and piano. It was performed by Vieuxtemps himself in Manchester in April 1869. At 12h30 on 22 February 2013, it will be Maria Milstein (violin) and Philippe Riga (piano) who perform this work in the Auditorium De Greef at the Bibliothèque Royale de Belgique. Works by Ludwig van Beethoven and Eugène Ysaÿe will complete the programme.