Paul Viardot (20 July 1857 – 1 December 1941) was a French violinist and musicologist; born at Courtavenel, son of the distinguished singer and composer
Pauline Viardot. Studied under Léonard and has appeared with great success in Paris and London. Compositions include two sonatas, several concert solos and smaller violin works as well as important contributions to the literature of music.
The second husband of Paul's aunt,
Maria Malibran, was the great Belgian violinist Charles de Bériot, who remained close to the Viardots and took an interest in the boy, though Paul actually studied with his successor at the Brussels Conservatoire
Hubert Léonard (also related by marriage to the Garcia clan). Though
Carl Flesch dismisses Paul Viardot as a salon player, he was clearly more than that, as he toured widely. He was a close friend to
Gabriel Fauré, who was briefly engaged to his sister Marianne, and dedicated his first violin sonata to him.
Viardot's recordings are rare, partly because they were poorly engineered; but they suggest an example of the Franco-Belgian school of violin playing in its rather tight phase, before the loosening and relaxing influence of Eugène Ysaÿe.
