DIRECTORY / LIBRARY OF FAMOUS HISTORICAL CELLISTS
Surname letter starting with D
** Alison Dalrymple
???? – ????
Britain
Important Activity:
Professor Royal Academy of Music, London. Professor London Violoncello School.
Anecdotes:
* first cello teacher of Jacqueline du Pre.
** Alan Dalziel
1931 – 1993
Britain
Important Activity:
Principal or co-principal cello: Sadlers Wells Opera Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Scottish Natiomal Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, National Philharmonic Orchestra.
Anecdotes:
* pupil of Alison Dalrymple (Royal Academy of Music, London), Arthur Tröster (Hamburg) and William Pleeth.
** Johann Arnold (Jean Andre) Dahmen
1760 – 1794
Holland (later Britain)
Important Activity:
Member Drury Lane Theatre Orchestra.
Music/Publications:
Own original compositions for cello.
Anecdotes:
* held a fine reputation.
** Arnauld Dancla
1820 – 1862
France
Important Activity:
Cellist & composer
Music/Publications:
Own original pieces and studies, plus a Cello method.
Anecdotes:
* First prize Paris Conservatoire (pupil of Norblen)
** Dezyderiusz Danczowski
1891 – 1950
Poland
Important Activity:
Principal cello orchestras of Prague and Poznan. Principal cello Cincinatti Orchestra (Ohio).
Anecdotes:
* pupil of A. Sládek, and J. Klengel.
INFORMATION BY DOROTA PUKOWNIK
** Peter Danielschenko
1860 – ????
Russia
Important Activity:
Professor (and theory teacher) Charkow Imperial Music School. Member Imperial Band. Professor Institute of Music of the Philharmonic Society.
Music/Publications:
Own original pieces.
Anecdotes:
* Pupil of Fitzenhagen during 7 years (at Moscow Conservatoire).
* he made frequent journeys for professional concerts.
** Franz (Ignaz) Danzi
1763 – 1826
Germany
Important Activity:
Worked in the orchestras of Mannheim, Munich (principal cello), Stuttgart (Kapellmeister). Professor Karlsruhe Conservatory.
Music/Publications:
Many own original compositions, including many stage works and orchestral works (symphonies, concertos etc).
Friendships:
C.M. Weber
Anecdotes:
* Studied with father (the noted Italian cellist Innocenz Danzi), and Georg Joseph Vogler.
* Considered a first-rate cellist as well as a conscientious and—by all reports—effective orchestra leader and conductor.
** Innocenz Danzi
c.1730 – 1798
Italy
Important Activity:
Principal cello Mannheim Orchestra
Anecdotes:
* His playing was praised by Mozart for his playing at the premiere of Idomeneo.
* Later his cello playing got relegated to a secondary activity as he dedicated himself to composition. Was ‘retired’ in 1783 …
* Was the teacher to his own son Franz Danzi.
** Marie Dare
1902 – 1976
Scotland
Important Activity:
composer and cellist. After the war she became principal cellist of the Reid Orchestra, Edinburgh; she was for many years a member of the Scottish Trio, and also became a proficient double bass player. She joined the staff of the Royal Scottish Academy of Music as a cello teacher, and coached youth orchestras in double bass.
Anecdotes:
* HONOURS: Guildhall School of Music – Gold Medal for Instrumentalists; Sir Landon Ronald Priz; Women Musicians Composition Prize with her Piano Trio
* She studied cello at the Guildhall School of Music in London, with William II. Squire, J. Warwick Evans & Charles Crabbe. At the end of World War I, as a teenager she was soloist in a Victory concert at the Royal Albert Hall, in the presence of Queen Alexandra.
* she then went to Paris for further cello study with Paul Bazelaire, also studying composition with Benjamin
* She made her professional solo debut at London’s Aeolian Hall; her recital career, which embraced such European capitals as Vienna, Prague and Budapest, included a notable Aeolian Hall concert devoted to her own compositions, in which she performed as both cellist and pianist.
* some of her music reveals a great depth of passion. Her compositions are attractive and idiomatic, and include solo and choral vocal works, both secular and liturgical; piano pieces; and a quantity of orchestral and chamber music
* she is universally remembered as a very shy, “private” person but of great charm and warmth; in contrast. She was based in Edinburgh and was an active bass player, cellist and teacher in the city until shortly before her death in 1976.
** Adolf (Dol) Dauber
1894 – 1950
Czech
Important Activity:
Ledec String Quartet (with Ledec, Kohn and Kraus). Composer-arranger-conductor of the Dol Dauber Salon Orchestra
Music:
many arrangements.
Anecdotes:
* father of Robert Dauber, promising cellist and composer, who died in Nazi persecution in 1945.
* the height of popularity for his salon orchestra were the 1920’s. However, there were serious efforts, including a recording of part of Bruckner’s 5th Symphony.
** Hugo Dauber
1833 – 1882
Germany {later Britain}
Important Activity:
Member of the Hallé Orchestra, Manchester
** Holocaust Victim – Robert Dauber
1922 – 1945
Czech
Important Activity:
Promising Cellist and Composer
Premieres:
he participated in the first performances of the opera Brundibár by Hans Krása.
Notes:
* the son of cellist Adolf Dauber. He was deported to Theresienstadt, and then to Terezín. Played in Orchestra at Terezín (Czech Concentration camp), and also a string quartet (with P. Kling, M. Bloch and Parkus). Died in Nazi persecution from typhus 24th March 1945 in Dachau – (just five days after cellist Friedrich Mark had died there). His style of composition owed something to Korngold.
** Carl Davidov (Davidoff) the ‘Czar of Cellists’
1838 – 1889
Latvia (later Russia)
Important Activity:
Professor Leipzig Conservatory, Professor St. Petersburg Conservatoire (later Director), Principal cello St. Petersburg Imperial Italian Opera Orchestra, Auer String Quartet (St. Petersburg), Director Russian Imperial Musical Society (St. Petersburg).
Dedications:
Henryk Pachulski – Cello Sonata, Op.4 (published 1890?)
R.E. Bockmühl – Berümte Chaconne (orig. J.S.Bach)
Klengel – Cello Concerto No.1 in A minor, Op.4 (1882)
Neruda – Cello Concerto No.2, Op.59
Music/Publications:
Many own original works, including cello concertos, and a Cello Method
Friendships:
Becker, Tchaikovsky (who called him the ‘Czar of Cellists’)
Article in JOHNSTONE-MUSIC
** Stephen De’ak
1897 – 1975
Hungary (later USA)
Important Activity:
Professor Curtis Institute Philadelphia, Professor Peabody Conservatory (Baltimore). Professor University of Southern California. Cellist Philadelphia Musical fund Quartet. Founder/Conductor Hagerstown (Maryland) Symphony orchestra, and of the Baltimore Women’s String Symphony Orchestra.
Music/Publications:
Own Cello method and studies. Wrote a biography on David Popper (his former teacher).
** Marthe Delcellier
1904 – 1998
France, later Canada
Important Activity:
Member of CSM (MSO) Orchestra (from 1937, more than 30 years service). Principal cello Montreal Women’s Symphony Orchestra.
Anecdotes:
* wife of violinist Pierre Iösch, and the mother of harpist Marie Iösch-Lorcini
INFORMATION BY THE CANADIAN ENCYCLOPEDIA
** Jules Delsart
1844 – 1900
France
Important Activity:
Professor Assistant to Franchomme (Paris Conservatoire, and succeeded Franchomme). Founder of group ‘Societe des Instruments Anciens’.
Premieres :
Popper – Requiem for 3 Cellos (with David Popper and Edward Howell – 1891).
Popper – Nocturne No.3, Op.42 (early 1880s)
Franck – Sonata (in the version for cello, which was not published until 1906).
Dedications:
Boellmann – Cello Sonata in A minor, Op.40
Boisdeffre – Suite Oriental (vlc and piano)
Friendships:
Cesar Franck.
Anecdotes:
* pupil of Franchomme.
* he was first professor to require obligatory use of the end-pin in Paris Conservatoire (from the year 1884 onwards).
** Jules Denefve
1814 – ????
Belgium
Important Activity:
Profesor (later director) Ecole de Musique (Brussels?), Principal cello Theatre Orchestra Hainaut. Principal cello (later conductor) Societe des Concerts. Founder and conductor of the Roland de Lattre Choral Society.
Music/Publications:
Some original own compositions (but hardly for cello).
Anecdotes:
* Pupil of Platel and Demunck at Brussels conservatoire.
** Hugo Dechert
1860 – 1923
Germany
Important Activity:
Principal cello Berlin Hofkapelle (Royal Court Orchestra). Member Halir and Joachim Quartets. Performed quintets and sextets with Joachim Quartet.
Dechart assisted Moser in editing the Haydn Quartets.
** (Marie Hippolyte) Antoine Dessaine
1826 – 1873
France, later Canada
Important Activity:
Promising soloist, whose versatility led him in many directions.
Music/Publications: wrote as a serious composer in many genres, including orchestral works that received a number of performances.
Anecdotes :
* student at Paris Conservatoire, and one of favourites of the then director Cherubini. Won cello and piano prizes.
* also a pianist, organist and was an enthusiastic composer. Moved to Quebec in 1848 to take up an organ post. In 1870 he directed his efforts in founding a Canadian conservatory modeled on that of Paris.
INFORMATION BY THE CANADIAN ENCYCLOPEDIA
** Joan Dickson
1921 – 1994
Scotland
Important Activity:
Edinburgh String Quartet. Scottish Trio. Professor Royal Scottish Academy of Music. Duo with Joyce Rathbone. Professor Royal College of Music, London. Professor Dartington summer courses. Teacher Purcell School of Music (England).
Premieres:
Ian Hamilton – Cello Sonata No.1 (also dedicatee).
David Dorward – Cello Concerto (also dedication).
David Barlow – Variations for cello and strings.
Martin Dalby – Trio.
Kenneth Leighton – Solo Cello Sonata.
Anecdotes:
* Pupil of Ivor James, Pierre Fournier and Endico Mainardi. Became the assistant of Mainardi.
* Close contact with the educator Paul Rolland.
** Constantin Dimitrescu
1847 – 1928
Rumania
Important Activity:
Professor Bucharest Conservatoire. Soloist.
Music/Publications :
own original music, including 3 cello concertos, other orchestral compositions, and 7 string quartets.
** Bonaventura Dini i Facci
1876 – 1936
Spain (Catalonia, of Italian family)
Important Activity:
Principal cello Liceu Opera Orchestra, Barcelona. Principal cello Pau Casals, Barcelona. Professor of Conservatoire Isabel II (Barcelona). Member Quartet de l’Associació Musical, Crickboom String Quartet.
Friendships:
Pau Casals.
Anecdotes:
* pupil of Josep Garcia i Robles, who was also teacher to Casals (Barcelona Municipal Music School).
* played in Casals Orchestra between 1920 and 1936.
* was also a professional singer (tenor).
** Dimitrie Dinicu
1868-1936
Rumania
Important Activity:
Professor Bucharest Conservatory. Conductor Symphony Orchestra of Bucharest.
Anecdotes:
* teacher of Radu Aldulescu.
* as a mature artist conducting became more important to him than cello performance.
* when he left the conductorship of the Bucharest orchestra, another cellist – Georgescu – took over.
** Ernst Doering
???? – ????
Germany
Important Activity:
Cellist of Leipzig Trio (with Charles Porter and Heinrich Klingenfeld). Professor in Halifax, Canada.
INFORMATION BY THE CANADIAN ENCYCLOPEDIA
** Frederick Von Dohnányi
???? – ????
Hungary
Important Activity:
The father of the famous composer Ernst Von Dohnányi (b.1877). He was an interesting, straight-forward thinking man, who loved the arts and music in particular. He was a really outstanding amateur cellist, who only decided for job ‘security’ to become a professor of mathematics and physics. Apart from the cello, his first instrument he also played a little the violin, and even tried composing! The Dohnányi home was always full of music-making, and the father’s role was sufficiently important for the writer Emil Kumlik to write a biography about him !
** Hélène Dolmetsch
1878 – 1924
France, later Great Britain
Important Activity:
Cellist and Viola da Gamba
Anecdotes:
* from a very musical family; one devoted to the restauration of baroque and early music as a main-stream activity.
* fine reputation on both instruments.She was said to have comfortably handled the Viola de gamba solos in the J.S. Bach Passions.
* One of most noted pupils was the Australian/Canadian cellist Joyce Sands.
* died after suffered a stroke at an early age.
** Claude Domergue
1734 – 1794
France
Important Activity:
Cellist.
Anecdotes:
* considered a ‘remarkable’ cellist, but never left his home town. Duport, whilst travelling in the south of France, stopped over just to make his acquaintance !
* Was executed in the disturbances of the French revolution, in 1794.
** Joseph Valentin Dont
1776 – 1833
Important Activity:
Opera Orchestra Vienna Karnthnerthor Theatre. Burg Theatre Orchestra, Bohemia.
Anecdotes:
* Pupil of Stiastny (in Prague).
* Also a noted quartet player.
** August Dotsch
1858 – 1882
Germany
Important Activity:
Cellist.
Anecdotes:
* Pupil of Jules de Swert.
* Esteemed cellist who died so young.
** Justus Johann Friedrich Dotzauer (Founder of the Dresden School of Cello Playing)
1783 — 1860
Germany
Important Activity:
Meiningen Court chapel. Leipzig Chapel. Quartet with Matthei, Campagnioli and Voigt. Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. Royal chamber musician in Dresden. Principal cello Dresden Chapel. Quartet with Limberg, Schmidel and Peschke. Professor of cello – Dresden.
Premieres:
Beethoven – Triple concerto, Op.56 (1808)
Music/Publications:
Many own original works, cello studies, and cello methods
Anecdotes:
* Father of the cellist Karl Ludwig Dotzauer.
* Dotzauer took part in the orchestral premieres of Wagner operas Rienzi and The Flying Dutchman.
Article in JOHNSTONE-MUSIC
** Karl Ludwig Dotzauer (the son of the famed Dotzauer !)
1811 – ????
Important Activity:
Principal cello Cassel court Orchestra.
Anecdotes:
* Son and pupil of Justus Johann Friedrich Dotzauer
** Karl Dreschler
1800 – 1873
Germany
Important Activity:
Principal cello Dessau Orchestra
Anecdotes:
* Pupil of Dotzauer.
* A distinguished Dresden cellist and teacher. His playing was ‘not powerful, but pleasing by its grace and delicacy’.
* Teacher of Lindner and Griitzmacher.
** Jozef Drohomirecki
1897 – ???
Poland
Important Activity:
Principal cello Katowice Symphony Orchestra.
Anecdotes:
* pupil of A. Sládek
* is honoured in memoriam by the ‘Jesef Drohomirecki Solo Cello Competition’.
INFORMATION BY DOROTA PUKOWNIK
** Vladimir Dubinsky
1873 – 1938
Russia (later USA)
Important Activity:
Principal cello Philadelphia Orchestra. Principal cello with Minneapolis and Rochester Philharmonic Orchestras. Tours with Ernestine Schumann-Heink. Professor Kellerman School of Musical Art, Brooklyn. Esardy Trio.
Anecdotes:
* A student contemporary of Serge Koussevitzky in Moscow Conservatoire.
* Played in the Philadelphia Orchestra for just one year.
** Jean-Baptiste Dubois
1870 – 1938
Belguim (later Canada)
Important Activity:
Ghent Municipal Theatre Orchestra. Professor Ghent Conservatoire. Principal cello and assistant conductor Sohmer Park orchestra (Canada). Principal cello Opéra Français (Montreal). Principal cello Couture MSO, and the Goulet MSO. Haydn Trio (with J.-J. Goulet, violin, and Émery Lavigne, piano). Member Mendelssohn Trio. Beethoven Trio (with Albert Chamberland and Maria Heynberg). He founded the Dubois String Quartet. Conductor Montreal Amateur Orchestral Society, Association Symphonique de Montréal, the Canadian Academy of Music, and the Symphonie Dubois.
Professorships: Collège de Montréal, McGill Conservatoire, Conservatoire National (Canadian Academy of Music). Founder-director of the public solfège classes established by the province of Quebec.
Music/Publications:
Own original works, and music theory manuals.
Anecdotes:
* the most distinguished student of Jules de Swert.
** Great DUKE Constantin Nikolaivich
1827-1892
Russia
Important Activity:
He was the second son of Tsar Nicholas I of Russia. Dedicated to the arts, and playing ‘admirably’ the cello. He married the Princess Alexandra of Saxe-Altenburg, herself a pianist! .He is a direct descendent of the cello-loving Queen Sofia of Spain.
** DUKE of East and PRINCE of Modena
1660 – 1694
Italy
Important Activity:
Enthusiastic supporter of the then ‘new’ cello. He even commissioned/bought a Stradivarius cello !
** DUKE of Maddaloni – Domenico Marzio Caraffa
(early to mid 18th century)
Italy
Important Activity:
Took cello playing seriously, and was probably a student of Franciscello. A sinfonia (for cello and harpsichord) was dedicated to him from Pergolesi.
Leo also dedicated him 6 cello concertos.
** Pauline Dunn
1922 – 1995
Great Britain
Important Activity:
Member Lydian Ensemble, Turner String Quartet, Leodian Quartet, Rogeri Trio, and duos with pianists Ernest Lush and Keith Swallow. Professor at the Huddersfield School of Music.
Anecdotes:
* a pupil of Maurice Eisenberg, also playing in master classes of Casals.
* At first a pianist, took up the cello in her teens.
** Also obtained French/German degree at Birmingham University.
** Jean-Louis Duport
1749 – 1819
France
Important Activity:
Patronage Prince of Guéménée. Principal cello Paris Opera Orchestra. Co-principal cello (with C.-N. Baudiot) Imperial Chapel, Paris. Professor Paris Conservatoire.
Premieres:
Beethoven – Cello Sonatas Nos. 1 and 2, in F Major and G Minor, Op.5
Music/Publications:
Important cello treatise ‘Essai sur le doigté du violoncelle et sur la conduite de l’archet’ (1806). Also wrote 5 cello concertos and a number of sonatas (some designed for non-advanced players).
Friendships:
Beethoven, Viotti.
Anecdotes:
* pupil of older brother Jean-Pierre.
* teacher of Nikolaus Kraft (1801).
** Jean-Pierre Duport
1741 – 1818
France
Important Activity:
Service of Prince of Conti. He then went to England and two years later to Spain. Patronage to Fredrick the Great (Prussia) – Principal cello Königliche Kapelle, Berlin.
Premieres:
* cellist in the premiere of Mozart’s ‘Prussian’ String Quartets
Music/Publications:
* own original music, including 3 violin concertos, a cello concerto and numerous sonatas.
Friendship:
Beethoven
Anecdotes:
* pupil of Berteau.
* teacher to King Friedrich Wilhelm II from 1773.
** Raoul Duquette
1879 – 1962
Canada
Important Activity:
Member Covent Garden Orchestra, London. Professor McGill University (Canada). Founder member Montreal Symphony Orchestra. Member (c.1935-50) CSM Orchestra. Founder member César Franck Trio (1917). Member Chamberland String Quartet (1920-25).
Anecdotes:
* studied with Gustave Labelle, Edouard Jacobs (Ghent Conservatoire).
* recorded a cello transcription of song ‘Annie Laurie’ for label HMV.
INFORMATION BY THE CANADIAN ENCYCLOPEDIA