Chrétien Urhan

He was first publicly mentioned in 1804 by Joséphine de Beauharnais, having replaced a violinist for a performance of Joseph Haydn's The Creation, at the young age of 14.

In the early 1820s, the violinist Sina, a member of the string quartet led by Schuppanzigh for Andrey Razumovsky, gave Urhan new encouragement to continue with the master's works.

[2] In 1834, Hector Berlioz wrote his Harold en Italie for orchestra with viola obbligato at the request of Niccolò Paganini, who refused to play the work.

His love for theatre music created a severe inner conflict, which he overcame by asking the permission of the Archbishop to play in the orchestra of the Opéra (of which he was leader), being told it was a matter for his own conscience.

[citation needed] Legouvé thought there were several greater violin virtuosi in Paris than Urhan, but that he outshone them through his profound knowledge of the masters and respect for their music, and through the indefinable quality of style which he brought to them.

[citation needed] The Stockhausens visited Urhan in his fifth-floor Paris apartment in 1839 and found him living in great simplicity in two rooms, with a piano and five stools in his bedroom, where they sat and were made very welcome.

He had been living in pitiable conditions in Belleville, and began to refuse his food: thoughts of suicide made him resolve to starve himself to death.

All interventions failed, and Urhan, whom the Stockhausen and Legentil families considered their dear friend, and who had formerly taken communion every Sunday, lost his faith in God and his desire for life.