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 regular ...

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 prefecture ...

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 Pierre Benjamin Monteux (; 4 April 18751 July 1964) was a French (later American) conducting, conductor. After violin and viola studies, and a decade as an orchestral player and occasional conductor, he began to receive regular conducting enga ...

(who later became a famous

conductor Conductor or conduction may refer to: Music * Conductor (music), a person who leads a musical ensemble, such as an orchestra. * ''Conductor'' (album), an album by indie rock band The Comas * Conduction, a type of structured free improvisation ...

). 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 List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

. In 1943 he and Marguerite Long established the Marguerite Long-Jacques Thibaud International Competition for violinists and pianists, which takes place each year in

Paris Paris () is the capital and 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), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. ...

. 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 Chamber music is a form of classical music that is composed for a small group of instruments—traditionally a group that could fit in a palace chamber or a large room. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small num ...

, particularly in a piano trio with the pianist Alfred Cortot and cellist

Pablo Casals Pau Casals i Defilló (Catalan: ; 29 December 187622 October 1973), usually known in English by his Castilian Spanish name 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 each ...

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 Ysaÿe ...

, who dedicated his 2nd Sonata for solo violin to him. Among his students were Manuel Quiroga (the dedicatee of Ysaÿe's 6th solo sonata), Eric Rosenblith, Joan Field, Rachel Steinman Clarke, Stephan Hero (see Jose Iturbi) and Yfrah Neaman. On 1 September 1953, Thibaud and 41 others died in the crash of Air France Flight 178. The aircraft, registration F-BAZZ, was on final approach to

Nice Nice ( , ; Niçard: , classical norm, or , nonstandard, ; it, Nizza ; lij, Nissa; grc, Νίκαια; la, Nicaea) is the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative c ...

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 a ...

. 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 ...

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