On this cello day

** 1753 - birth of Pierre-François Levasseur {‘the older’} (Abbeville, France) d. c1815-1820 {not related to Jean-Henri Levasseur}
cellist, theatre/opera orchestra

** 1822 - English cellist Robert Lindley performed with his son, and the double bassist Dragonetti on this day (in London)

** 1867 - first performance of the Verdi opera “Don Carlo” on this day, in Paris – there is an important principal cello solo in this work.

** 1881 - birth of Ladislav Zelenka (Modřany, Czech) d.1957
cellist, chamber musician & teacher

** 1900 - cello recital in London by Mr W.H. Squire (cello) and Herr Georg Liebling (piano)

** 1911- cellist Pau {Pablo} Casals performed as soloist with the Concertgebouw Orchestra, in Schumann – Cello Concerto, Op.129 and Röntgen – Cello Concerto. Two concerts, in Den Haag (11th March) and Amsterdam (12th March) and conducted by Willem Mengelberg, with the composer conducting his own composition.

** 1911 – birth of Howard Mitchell (Lyons, Nebraska, U.S.A.) d.1988
An American cellist and conductor. Mitchell joined the National Symphony Orchestra as principal cellist in 1933. In addition to playing with the NSO, Mitchell made his conducting debut with the ensemble in 1941, becoming the orchestra’s music director in 1949, working with them continuously up to 1969. He had a reputation that so few conductors anywhere have equalled as regards to his extraordinary commitment to community outreach and education – he devised study guides, allowing teachers who were not themselves musicians to be able to incorporate music into their classroom settings.

** 1913 - the Brahms - Double Concerto for violin, cello and orchestra was performed on today’s date in Berlin by soloists Eugène Ysaye & Jean Gérardy with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Stransky

** 1916 - a New Reid Concert took place on today’s date at the Freemasons' Hall (Edinburgh). The names of the performers were Miss Helen Anderton - singer, Mr Horace Fellowes - violin, Miss Emily Buchanan - viola and Mrs Alexander Maitland - continuo. However, what specially interests the cello world is that the list was completed by Rodolphe Soiron - cello, and he was to give a performance of Debussy - Sonata for violoncello and pianoforte - surely one of the FIRST renditions in all history, and although there is no obvious proof this may well have been a British (or at a minimum Scottish!) premiere. The other composers on the programme were Donald Tovey, Brahms and 3 Scarlatti sonatas (these last probably for the first time too in public!)

** 1918 - the Royal Philharmonic Society at the Queen's Hall (London) gave a performance featuring the soloist Beatrice Harrison (cello).

** 1920 – birth of Calo Scott (Camaguey, Cuba) d.1998
a Cuban-American jazz cellist, he was one of the earliest competent jazz cellists.

** 1929 - birth of Kermit Moore (Akron. Ohio, USA) d.2013
cellist, conductor, composer, teacher, and mentor

** 1930 – cellist Gregor Piatigorsky performed as soloist with the Concertgebouw Orchestra, in Haydn - Cello Concerto in D Major. Three concerts, in Den Haag (8th March), Amsterdam (9th March) and Haarlem (11th March) conducted by Willem Mengelberg

** 1931 - On 11th March 1931, Pau Casals’ mother, Pilar Defilló, dies in Sant Salvador.

** 1938 - Thirteen active musicians were expelled from the Vienna State Opera Orchestra and the Vienna Philharmonic in 1938 (three additional musicians who were already in retirement also became victims of the holocaust).  The first large wave of expulsion of musicians from the State Opera started March 11-13th this year, and affected primarily prominent artists who, according to the National Socialistic racial doctrine, were considered Jewish, as was the case with the concertmaster and soloist Arnold Rosé and his colleague, principal cellist and soloist Siegfried Friedrich Buxbaum. For those who were not able to escape, things got much worse. Nine Philharmonic musicians were able to escape into exile in time. Arnold Rosé and Friedrich Buxbaum escaped to London, England. They were already advanced in years and despite having many advantageous contacts it was difficult for them to gain a foothold in the British musical scene.
Friedrich Buxbaum, who had held the exposed position of soloist and principal cellist, was expelled from the orchestral association immediately after Austria’s annexation to Nazi Germany, after THIRTY-EIGHT YEARS of service. The legitimacy of this decision was confirmed by State Opera director Erwin Kerber’s announcement of March 18th, 1938, informing the administration of the Bundestheater (Austrian Federal Theatres; BThV) that „nichtarischen Mitglieder des Solopersonals [...] bis zum Einlangen höherer Weisungen im Spielplan nicht beschäftigt [werden]“3 [“until further orders are issued by higher authority, no non-Aryan soloist will be included in the repertoire”].

** 1955 - cellist Antonio Janigro performed as soloist with the Concertgebouw Orchestra, in Haydn – Cello Concerto in D Major. Three concerts, in Amsterdam (9th and 10th March), and Dan Haag (12th March) conducted by Eduard van Beinum

** 1958 - on this day cellist Pierre Fournier made a broadcast performance of Boccherini - Cello Concerto in Bb Major (version Grützmacher) with the Symphonieorchester des Norddeutschen Rundfunks, conducted by Georg Solti

** 1962 - in the National Gallery of Art, in Washington D.C., a performance was given by the National Gallery Orchestra, with cellist Ana Drittelle as invited soloist, conducted by Richard Bales

** 1967 - birth of Jean-Guihen Queyras (Montreal, Quebec)
cellist

** 1979 - first performance of Malcolm Forsyth - Eight Duets for Young Cellists (1974)
cellists: Amanda Forsyth and Shauna Rolston (University of Alberta, Canada)

** 1979 - first performance of Jan Duchaň - Cello Concerto
soloist - Michaela Fukačová, with the Moravský komorní orchestr, conducted by Zbynek Mrkos (Besedni dum, Brno city, Czech Republic)

** 1988 - first performance of William Bolcom - Capriccio for cello and piano
(Library of Congress, Washington)

** 1998 - Suzana Stefanović performed the Richard Strauss - Romanze at the Fundación Juan March in Madrid - quite possibly a Spanish premiere of the work, for it was left for lost for many decades and only published as late as 1978. Originally conceived for cello and orchestra, she was accompanied on this occasion by the pianist Agustin Serrano