Historical Events of April 14
14 April
** 1768 - on this date the earliest published compositions by James Cervetto “Opera prima[:] Six Solos for the Violoncello, with a Thorough Bass”, were first advertised for sale in the Public Advertiser (14th April 1768)
** 1840 - In a concert of the talented Russian violinist Nikolay Dmitriev-Svetchin, the cellist Auguste Franchomme participated by playing a “Theme and Variations” he himself had composed.
** 1843 - birth of Albert Gowa (Hamburg, Germany)
cellist, principal cello in court of Prince Schaumburg Lippe at Biickeburg, principal cello in Hamburg Philharmonic Orchestra (during 20 years), chamber musician in various quartets.
** 1864 – cello soloist David Popper performed Volkmann’s Cello Concerto, Op.33 once again (at least the third time in the space of less than 12 months) at a Löwenberg Orchestra Concert. He again repeated on 17th April the same month
** 1867 - birth of Karl Piening (Bielefeld, Germany)
cellist, member of the ‘newly-founded’ Glasgow Quartet, solo cellist of the ducal chapels at Crefeld and Meiningen, member Meiningham Quartet, played music with composer Wilhelm Berger
** 1878 - birth of Hélène Dolmetsch (Nancy, France) d.1924
cellist {based England}
** 1909 – the Max Fiedler – Cello Sonata in E-flat Major (composed before 1909) was given its US premiere with Alwin Schroeder in the Hess-Schroeder Quartet's 1908-9 Chickering Hall concert series (Boston). Still in manuscript at the time, the sonata had been played earlier in Leipzig, with Julius Klengel and the composer. Music critic Philip Hale wrote in the Boston Herald, 14th April, 1909:
“Mr. Fiedler’s sonata... is in four movements. The themes of the first are fresh and they have a marked profile. The spirit of the movement is romantic, and the development of the thematic material is interesting, not merely scholastic and perfunctory."
The critic of the Boston Globe wrote on the same day:
“... it was around the Fiedler sonata, naturally, that most interest centered. The composer played as he conducts, with authority. ... From the very Schubert-like beginning of the piece to its brilliant ending it is a thing of resonance and genuine power. To hear two such musicians as Messrs Schroeder and Fiedler together, as was the case last night, was as unusual as it was memorable."
** 1921 – Gregor Piatigorsky gave his last concert (Moscow) before his escape to the West. He performed with members of the State Quartet of the Music Department of People’s Commissariat for Education, also known as the ‘Lenin Quartet’. The programme included Prokofiev - Ballade for Cello and Piano in C Minor; Prokofiev - Romances; Krein - A Poem (Quartet, Op.9).
He was not to return to the Soviet Union for decades.
** 1923 - solo Belgium cellist Jean Gérardy started a third major concert tour of Australia on this day. Learning from the mistakes of the previous tour, this time they performed in far many more places, but less engagements in each one.
** 1931 – On 14th April 1931 the Second Republic is proclaimed, with which Pablo Casals participates and becomes personally involved as a member of the Junta de Música de Catalunya (Music Board of Catalonia).
** 1951 - birth of Julian Lloyd Webber (London)
cellist, conductor & conservatoire principal
** 1955 – cellist Janos Starker performed as soloist with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in Prokofiev Cello Concerto in E minor, Op. 58 with Fritz Reiner, conductor (14th and 15th April)
** 1957 - on this day cellist Pierre Fournier made a live recording of Schumann - Cello Concerto in A minor, in Geneva, with the Kölner Rundfunk-Sinfonie-Orchester, conducted by Hans Rosbaud
** 1979 - first performance of Peter Sculthorpe - Requiem for cello
(Mittagong, NSW, Australia)
** 1982 - birth of Alisa Weilerstein (Rochester, New York, USA)
Cellist
** 1984 – on the 12th, 13th, 14th and 17th of this month, cellist Lorne Munroe performed as invited soloist with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra (conducted by Davis), in the Avery Fisher Hall (New York)
** 1984 – the premiere of Swedish composer Hilding Hallnäs’ Cello Concerto (written 1982) took place on this date at the Berwaldhallen/Sveriges riksradio, featuring cello soloist Ola Karlsson, with the Radiosymfonikerna conducted by Leif Segerstam
** 1994 – Danish cellist Erling Blöndal Bengtsson made a live performance recording of Richard Strauss - Don Quixote op. 35 (1897), on Danish Radio Studio 1
