Thomson, César
Thomson, César
Thomson, César, eminent Belgian violinist and teacher; b. Liège, March 17, 1857; d. Bissone, near Lugano, Aug. 21, 1931. He entered the Liège Cons, at the age of 7, where he began his training with Dupuis. He won the Gold Medal at 11, and subsequently studied with Vieuxtemps, Léonard, Wieniawski, and Massart. In 1873 he entered the service of Baron Paul von Derwies in Lugano, and in 1879 he became concertmaster of Bilse’s orch. in Berlin. In 1882 he became prof, of violin at the Liège Cons., then in 1898 at the Brussels Cons., where he founded a celebrated string quartet (with Lamoureux, Vanhout, and Jacobs). In 1914 he settled in Paris as a prof, at the Cons. In 1924 he visited America; taught at the Cons, of Ithaca, N.Y., and at the Juilliard School of Music, N.Y., returning to Europe in 1927. He was a famous violin teacher, emphasizing perfection of technical and expressive performance, rather than bravura. He made arrangements for the violin of various works by early Italian composers.
Bibliography
H. Timerman, How to Produce a Beautiful Tone on the Violin.Jn Accordance with the Principles of C. T. (N.Y., 1923).
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire