Saint-Georges, Joseph Bologne de (1745-1799)

In an age of remarkable individuals, Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges, son of a French colonial planter and a beautiful Senegalese slave, occupied a unique position as an athlete, swordsman, military commander, huntsman, violin virtuoso, composer and conductor. Though written for his own use, the violin concertos are more than vehicles for mere virtuoso display. Lyrical expressive slow movements are flanked by often highly original outer movements, quite unlike anything being written at the time by Viennese composers such as Haydn, Hofmann and Dittersdorf. Had Mozart seen Saint-Georges play his brilliant concertos while he was in Paris in 1778, he would have heard many things in them to admire. Allan Badley