Neveu, Ginette

VIOLINIST (FRANCE)
BORN 11 Aug 1919, Paris - DIED 28 Oct 1949, San Miguel, Azores Islands
CAUSE OF DEATH plane crash
GRAVE LOCATION Paris: Père Lachaise, Rue du Repos 16 (division 11, ligne 01)

Ginette Neveu was a child prodigy. She was taught the violon by her mother when she was five and she gave her first concert with the Colonne orchestra at the Gaveau in Paris when she was only seven years old, playing the Violin Concerto by Max Bruch. She studied with Line Talluel and at the Conservatory in Paris with Jules Boucherit. She also studied with George Enescu and Nadia Boulanger and from 1931 until 1935 with Carl Flesch. In 1935 she won the International Wieniawski Prize in Warshaw. Many more prizes followed.

She made several recordings, among them the Violin Concerto by Brahms. During the war she was unable to travel abroad, but after 1945 she resumed her international career. In 1948 she played Beethoven's Violin Concerto conducted by Von Karajan.

On October 20th, 1949 she gave a concert titled "Concert d'adieu" at the Pleyel in Paris. Eight days later she died in a plane crash on her way to the USA. The plane failed to make a landing at São Miguel Island in the Azores and the crashed against a mountain. Her brother Jean (her accompanist on the piano) and the boxer Marcel Cerdan died in the same crash. Her Stradivarius violin was lost as well.

Related persons
• was pupil of Boulanger, Nadia
• was pupil of Enesco, Georges

Events
29/9/1949Ginette Neveu plays the Beethoven Violin Concerto at the Kurhaus in Baden-Baden. The next month she would die in a plane crash. [Beethoven, Ludwig van]

Images

The grave of Ginette Neveu at Père Lachaise, Paris.
Picture by Androom (19 Nov 2006)

 

Sources
• Culbertson, Judi & Tom Randall, Permanent Parisians, Robson Books, London, 1991
Ginette Neveu — Wikipédia


Newes, Martha Maria

Published: 21 Oct 2007
Last update: 26 Jan 2022