Servais and Vieuxtemps - Grand Duo sur des motifs de l'Opéra Les Huguenots for violin and cello (Urtext Edition)

Musical collaborations are quite common; however, we are not used to seeing two or more composers on our scores. It is common knowledge that Joseph Joachim wrote parts of Johannes Brahms’s Violin Concerto or that Hanuš Wihan wrote parts of Dvořák’s Cello Concerto, but many times the collaborator’s name is simply listed as the dedicatee.

A great

Musical collaborations are quite common; however, we are not used to seeing two or more composers on our scores. It is common knowledge that Joseph Joachim wrote parts of Johannes Brahms’s Violin Concerto or that Hanuš Wihan wrote parts of Dvořák’s Cello Concerto, but many times the collaborator’s name is simply listed as the dedicatee.

A great specimen of a collaboration of the time comes in the form of the Grand Duo for violin and cello by François Servais (1807–66) and Henry Vieuxtemps (1820-81), both Belgian virtuosos. The Grand Duo is based on Meyerbeer’s opera Les Huguenots and is dedicated to Prince Nikolai Borisovich Yusupov [grandson] (1827–91), Marshal of the Russian Imperial Court as well as a violinist and composer. Notably, Yusupov transcribed Servais’s Souvenir de Spa and Fantaisie sur deux Airs Russes for violin.

Like many of the fantasies by Servais, this duo is in four parts consisting of an introduction, a set of variations, a slow section, and a finale. The introduction comes from the Overture based on the popular Lutharn chant “Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott.” The theme (and variations) come from Raoul's Romance "Plus blanche que la blanche hermine" from Act I, Scene 2. The slow, third section comes from the Duo of Raoul and Marguerite "Beauté divine, enchanteresse" Act II, Scene 10, and the Finale from Act I, Scene 1d Orgie "Bonheur de la table."

The sources were graciously provided by the Servais Society. Our edition is the first to include a score, which has been formatted for performance. The separate parts are also included.