From September 1778 to 1780, Rodolphe Kreutzer had three violin lessons a week in Versailles with Antoine Thaddée Népomucène Stamitz. The fee was 18 livres a month. On 25 May 1780, Kreutzer played a concerto by his teacher at the Concert Spirituel.
The identity of that teacher matters. The handed-over lineage names Antonin Stamic, who died in 1757. The Centre de musique baroque de Versailles identifies Kreutzer’s teacher instead as his son, Antoine Thaddée Népomucène Stamitz. Its evidence includes the lesson schedule and a contemporary account, though no conservatory pupil record has been found.
From lessons to printed music
Around 1782–83, Kreutzer heard Giovanni Viotti and admired his playing. The lineage names Giovanni Viotti as a teacher, but the consulted biographical account says there is no proof that Kreutzer studied with him. No identified passage in Kreutzer’s teaching works has been traced to a particular Viotti lesson.
Kreutzer later helped prepare a Méthode de violon with Pierre Rode and Pierre Baillot. Its title says it was adopted for study at the Paris Conservatoire and identifies Baillot as the writer of the text. Another title in the Bibliothèque nationale de France catalogue states the intended audience of Kreutzer’s studies:
24 Etudes pour le Violon ou Caprices
They were composed for his conservatory pupils. The publication history of the better-known set of 42 études is less settled. The handed-over record gives 1796; Henle dates a set of 40 Études ou Caprices to early 1806 and says it later grew to 42. The BnF also catalogues separate suites dated 1794 and 1798.
In 1800, Kreutzer published his Première symphonie concertante. Its title says that he and Pierre Rode performed the two principal violin parts. It documents shared repertoire, not a teaching relationship.
Kreutzer’s pupils
Kreutzer taught his younger brother Auguste Kreutzer, who won a conservatory first prize in 1801 and succeeded him in his teaching post in 1826. No lesson book or marked score has been found that identifies an exercise Rodolphe gave Auguste.
Jean Tolbecque entered the conservatory in 1816 and, according to an older violin history, studied violin with Kreutzer. Louis Schlosser continued his studies with Kreutzer there after arriving in Paris in 1823. The lineage also names Louis Schlosser as the teacher of Joseph Abenheim. The consulted accounts identify no Kreutzer exercise passed through that second link.
Biographical accounts call Lambert Massart Kreutzer’s private pupil after Massart was refused conservatory admission. They do not fix the dates of those lessons. Kreutzer died in 1831; Auguste Kreutzer died the following year.
Massart’s pupils and editions
The Wieniawski Musical Society dates Henryk Wieniawski’s entry into Massart’s conservatory class to 28 November 1843. He initially worked with Massart’s assistant, moving into Massart’s special class on 2 December 1844. His early repertoire included Kreutzer’s Violin Concerto No. 19, and the first edition of his Grand Caprice fantastique, Op. 1, dedicates the work to Massart as his teacher.
The lineage also lists Timothee Adamowski and Charles Loeffler as Massart’s pupils; the research report supplies no account of their lessons.
In 1893, after Massart’s death, the BnF catalogued his L’Art de travailler les études de Kreutzer, with 412 examples of fingerings and bow strokes, and an edition of Kreutzer’s forty studies revised from Massart’s notes. Neither publication establishes which markings, if any, came from Kreutzer’s own lessons. Searches also found no contemporary admission decision, lesson register, letter or payment record documenting Massart’s reported private study with him.
