Jacques Thibaud (; 27 September 18801 September 1953) was a French

violin The violin, sometimes known as a '' fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone ( string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument ( soprano) in the family in regu ...

ist.

Biography

Thibaud was born in

Bordeaux Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefect ...

and studied the violin with his father before entering the

Paris Conservatoire The Conservatoire de Paris (), also known as the Paris Conservatory, is a college of music and dance founded in 1795. Officially known as the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris (CNSMDP), it is situated in the avenue ...

at the age of thirteen. In 1896 he jointly won the conservatory's violin prize with Pierre Monteux (who later became a famous conductor). He had to rebuild his technique after being injured in

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. In 1943 he and

Marguerite Long Marguerite Marie-Charlotte Long (13 November 1874 – 13 February 1966) was a French pianist, pedagogue, lecturer, and an ambassador of French music. Life Early life: 1874–1900 Marguerite Long was born to Pierre Long and Anne Marie Antoin ...

established the Marguerite Long-Jacques Thibaud International Competition for violinists and pianists, which takes place each year in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

. From 2011, it has included singers and is now known as the Long-Thibaud-Crespin Competition, in honour of the soprano Régine Crespin. Thibaud was noted not only for his work as a soloist, but also for his performances of chamber music, particularly in a

piano trio A piano trio is a group of piano and two other instruments, usually a violin and a cello, or a piece of music written for such a group. It is one of the most common forms found in classical chamber music. The term can also refer to a group of m ...

with the pianist Alfred Cortot and cellist Pablo Casals. He undertook concert tours with pianist

Yves Nat Yves Philippe Avit Nat (29 December 1890 – 31 August 1956) was a French pianist and composer. Biography Nat was born in Béziers and showed an early aptitude for both piano and composition. By the age of seven he was allowed to improvise eac ...

and

George Enescu George Enescu (; – 4 May 1955), known in France as Georges Enesco, was a Romanian composer, violinist, conductor and teacher. Regarded as one of the greatest musicians in Romanian history, Enescu is featured on the Romanian five lei. Biogr ...

. He was a friend of violinist

Eugène Ysaÿe Eugène-Auguste Ysaÿe (; 16 July 185812 May 1931) was a Belgian virtuoso violinist, composer, and conductor. He was regarded as "The King of the Violin", or, as Nathan Milstein put it, the "tsar". Legend of the Ysaÿe violin Eugène Ysa� ...

, who dedicated his 2nd Sonata for solo violin to him. Among his students were

Manuel Quiroga Manuel López-Quiroga Miquel (January 30, 1899 – December 13, 1988), better known as Maestro Quiroga, was a Spanish composer especially known for his '' coplas'', ''cuplés'', and ''zarzuelas''. He was also a pianist and one of the group of ...

(the dedicatee of Ysaÿe's 6th solo sonata),

Eric Rosenblith Eric Rosenblith (December 11, 1920 – December 16, 2010) was an Austrian-born American violinist. He was the former concertmaster of the Indianapolis and San Antonio Symphony Orchestras, and had performed as a soloist and chamber musician thro ...

Joan Field Joan Field (April 28, 1915March 18, 1988) was an American violinist. Biography and career Joan Field was born in Long Branch, New Jersey. She began violin studies at the age of 5. She was a pupil of Franz Kneisel, Albert Spalding and Michel P ...

Rachel Steinman Clarke Rachel Steinman Clarke (c. 1882 – November 4, 1944) was a Polish-born American violinist based in Chicago. Early life Rachel Steinman was born in Włocławek, Poland. Her family moved to the United States when Steinman was a child, and she ...

, Stephan Hero (see Jose Iturbi) and

Yfrah Neaman Professor Yfrah Neaman, OBE FGSM (13 February 1923 – 4 January 2003), was a concert violinist and an instructor. Early life Neaman was born in Sidon, Lebanon. He lived in Tel Aviv until 1932 when he moved to Paris to study at the Paris ...

. On 1 September 1953, Thibaud and 41 others died in the crash of

Air France Flight 178 On 1 September 1953, an Air France Lockheed L-749 Constellation, registered in France as F-BAZZ, flying Flight 178, a scheduled flight from Paris to Nice, crashed into the Pelat Massif in the French Alps near Barcelonnette on the first stage of ...

. The aircraft, registration F-BAZZ, was on final approach to

Nice Nice ( , ; Niçard dialect, Niçard: , classical norm, or , nonstandard, ; it, Nizza ; lij, Nissa; grc, Νίκαια; la, Nicaea) is the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes departments of France, department in France. The Nice urban unit, agg ...

when it struck Mt Cemet in the

French Alps The French Alps are the portions of the Alps mountain range that stand within France, located in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur regions. While some of the ranges of the French Alps are entirely in France, others, such as ...

. His 1720

Stradivarius A Stradivarius is one of the violins, violas, cellos and other string instruments built by members of the Italian family Stradivari, particularly Antonio Stradivari (Latin: Antonius Stradivarius), during the 17th and 18th centuries. They are c ...

violin was destroyed in the crash. The accident investigation established " controlled flight into terrain (CFIT)" as the cause.

References

Bibliography

*Jacques Thibaud, ''Un violon parle : souvenirs de Jacques Thibaud'' (J-P Dorian ed., Ed. Blé qui lève, Paris, Lausanne, Montréal, 1947 ; Ed. del Duca, Paris, 1953). *Roth, Henry (1997). ''Violin Virtuosos: From Paganini to the 21st Century''. Los Angeles, CA: California Classics Books. *''Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians,'' Centennial Edition. Nicolas Slonimsky, Editor Emeritus. Schirmer, 2001

External links

*
Legendary Violinists
{{DEFAULTSORT:Thibaud, Jacques 20th-century French male classical violinists Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in France 1880 births 1953 deaths Conservatoire de Paris alumni École Normale de Musique de Paris alumni Musicians from Bordeaux Fonotipia Records artists Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in 1953 French military personnel of World War I