On this cello day

** 1764 – sometime in 1763, Carlo Graziani travelled to London to serve as principal cellist of the King's Theatre in the Haymarket, which was under the baton of fellow Italian Felice de Giardini at that time. It is known that Graziani performed in three benefit concerts during the following year, 1764. Scholar Valerie Walden notes that the first two concerts took place on 10th February and 1st March and the third on 22nd May. Also - around this time, Graziani seems to have married, for he is later documented in Frankfurt am Main giving concerts during September 1770 alongside his wife who was a singer!

** 1831 - Carl Leopold Boehm started this day an important position, upon his appointment for life in the chapel of the art-loving Prince Fürstenberg at Donaueschingen, Baden-Württemberg, Germany

** 1832 - birth of Friedrich Wilhelm Ludwig Grützmacher (Dessau, Anhalt, Germany) d.1903
cellist, composer, arranger & teacher

** 1857 – at a Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra concert, Josef Hartinger was cello soloist in the Beethoven – Triple Concerto (with Georg Hellmesberger – violin, and D. Pruckner – piano). Orchestral works of Mendelssohn and Schubert works were also heard.
Conductor: Carl Eckert / Hofburg Palace, Redoutensaal, Vienna, Austria

** 1875 - first performance of Monasterio - Romanza for cello (written 1874)
Víctor Mirecki Larramat/cello and ?/piano (Madrid)

** 1885 – at a Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra concert, Robert Hausmann was cello soloist in Molique – Cello Concerto. Orchestral works of Gade, Dvorak and Mozart were also heard.
Conductor: Hans Richter / Place: Musikverein, Golden Hall, Vienna

** 1889 – birth of Ecuadorian cellist Teodelinda Terán Hicks (Quito) d.1959
woman cellist, later working in London and California

** 1894 - in a “Miss Adelina de Lara’s Pianoforte Recital” in London, special featured guests were Edward Howell (cello) and Mr Arthur Oswald (vocal)

** 1895 – Dvorak had made a version of Waldesruhe (Silent Woods), Op. 68, No. 5, for cello and piano that he and Hans Wihan performed on Dvorak's farewell tour of Bohemia before the composer left for a stint as director of the National Conservatory in New York City (1892-5). Then, in 1894, Dvorak's orchestration of the piano part was published, and Alwin Schroeder was perhaps the first cellist to perform this new version in the U.S.A. when he paired it with an orchestrated version of Julius Klengel's Capriccio, Op. 3, on 1st and 2nd March, 1895 with the Boston Symphony Orchestra

** 1896 - cellist Johan C. Hock (Jnr.) performed as soloist with the Concertgebouw Orchestra, in van Goens – Romance, Op.12/1. Concert in Amsterdam, conducted by Willem Mengelberg

** 1899 - birth of Marion Cumbo (New York) d.1990
cellist, chamber musician & teacher

** 1905 – cellist Alwin Schroeder gave many performances of the Locatelli – Cello Sonata in D Major (version Piatti) from coast to coast of the U.S.A. during the 1904-1907 period, and the reception of both the work and Schroeder's playing was even warmer. This from the New York Times on 1st March, 1905:
"…[The Locatelli sonata] has some of the qualities of a virtuoso piece; but it has substantial musical value and insinuating grace and old world charm. Mr. Schroeder’s playing of it was the work of a great artist; as such he was greeted with an unwonted outburst of welcome, and as such he was acclaimed again and again at the close. In breath of style, repose, clarity of expression, and perfect command of all the subtleties of the technique of the instrument it was an extraordinary performance. Few masters of the violoncello can make passages of agility seem so unobtrusive, so natural to the instrument, even musical in significance, as he.”

** 1906 - Joseph Hollman, solo cellist, recorded his own Chanson d'amour (Song of love) on 1st March, 1906 in New York

** 1924 – birth of Sherley Trepel (Winnipeg, Canada)
cellist, orchestral principal. She made her New York debut in 1949. She became principal cello in the Houston Symphony Orchestra in 1963, and began teaching at Rice University (Houston) in 1975, continuing up to 1991.

** 1931 - Hans Kindler (cello) and Myra Hess (piano) gave a recital in Lycoming (England)

** 1932 - The Horowitz-Milstein-Piatigorsky Trio started their activity together on this date, thanks to an eccentric manager called Alexander Merovich, who brought Piatigorsky together with Vladimir Horowitz and Nathan Milstein to tour individually and as a trio.

** 1935 - Beatrice Harrison returned to the White House, offering works by Roger Quilter, Frederick Delius, Jean Baptiste Senaillé, Édouard Lalo, and Herbert Hughes

** 1942 – birth of Vladimir Pavlovich Perlin (Frunze, Kirghiz, Belarus)
cellist, conductor and pedagogue. Professor of Cello in the Belarusian State Academy of Music. A cello pedagogue in Musica Mundi School. Belgium.
Since 1988 Vladimir Perlin is the founder, artistic director and chief conductor of the Chamber Orchestra of young musicians in RMC, which he regularly leads on tours around the world. Perlin is also frequently invited to serve as a jury member of international cello competitions. In 2003 for his significant contribution to music education, Perlin was appointed an Officier de l'Odre des Palmes Académiques de la République Française. He was the first Belarusian to receive this title.

** 1950 - cellist Pierre Fournier performed as soloist with the Concertgebouw Orchestra, in Dvorak – Cello Concerto, Op.104. Two concerts, in Amsterdam (1st and 2nd March), conducted by Rafael Kubelik

** 1950 - first performance of Prokofiev - Cello Sonata in C Major, Op.119
Mstislav Rostropovich/cello and S. Richter/piano (Moscow, Small Hall of Moscow Conservatory)
In his memoirs Sviatoslav Richter wrote:
“We gave the first performance of Prokofiev's Cello Sonata. Before playing it in concert, we had to perform it at the Composer's Union, where these gentlemen decided the fate of all new works. During this period more than any other, they needed to work out whether Prokofiev had produced a new masterpiece or, conversely, a piece that was 'hostile to the spirit of the people.' Three months later, we had to play it again at a plenary session of all the composers who sat on the Radio Committee, and it wasn't until the following year that we were able to perform it in public, in the Small Hall of the Moscow Conservatory on March 1, 1950.”

** 1952 - a concert recital took place (venue unsure) on today’s date, shared between Marie Dare (cello) - Arvon Davies (piano), and Maria Piccaver (soprano) - Mary Ryan (flute)

** 1962 - cellist Tibor de Machula performed as soloist with the Concertgebouw Orchestra, in Schumann - Cello Concerto, Op.129. Four concerts, in Den Haag (24th February) and Amsterdam (28th February, and 1st and 3rd March), conducted by Bernard Haitink

** 1963 - in an obituary by the "Times" about the cellist May Mukle the following was stated:
"By the turn of the century she was fully recognized not only as an outstanding musician but as one of the most remarkable cellists this country had produced. Women cellists were very rare in those days and it was largely due to her success that the repertoire developed so quickly and the instrument became so popular with both sexes. Whether as soloists, or in one of the various ensembles she adorned, she travelled extensively in all five Continents, finding herself as much at home with native audiences in remote African towns as in large sophisticated music clubs in Australia and the United States " (Times March 1, 1963).

** 1995 - release date of the grand recording project “12 Hommages à Paul Sacher pour Violoncelle” by cellists Thomas Demenga and Patrick Demenga (a double CD set) - understood to be the first complete recording ever of these 12 works dedicated to the Swiss counductor, contemporary music enthusiast and music organizer Paul Sacher on the occasion of his 70th birthday in 1976.

** 1999 - first performances of David Johnstone - Pilgrim’s Rest; Johnstone - Danxas de Galicia; Johnstone - Lament; and Johnstone - The Prisonner - all these for solo cello
soloist - David Johnstone (“O Camiño de Santiago; A Música do milenio”, Aula de Cultura de Caixa Galicia, Santiago de Compostela, Galicia, Spain)