On this cello day

** 1820 - Pierre Alexandre François Chevillard (b. 1811, Antwerp, Belgium) became a student at the Paris Conservatoire on this day, a pupil of Norblin!

** 1838 - birth of Carl Davidov/Davydov (Goldingen, Latvia) d.1889
cellist and composer
Karl Davydov was a renowned 19th-century Russian cellist, composer, and pedagogue celebrated for his virtuosity and nicknamed "the emperor of all cellists" by Tchaikovsky. Despite initially studying mathematics, he became a leading cellist after graduating from the Leipzig Conservatory. He held a professorship and later the directorship at the St. Petersburg Conservatory and composed several works, including four cello concertos. 

** 1858 - birth of Raymond François Marthe (Tarbes, France)
cellist, member of the Paris Opera Orchestra & teacher

** 1868 – at a Löwenberg Orchestra Concert David Popper performed as soloist the Batta: Souvenir de Don Sébastien (Elégie), Op.48, Popper – Mazurka, Op.11, and Piatti - Airs Baskyrs, Op.8.

** 1876 – birth of Louis Delune (Charleroi, Belgium) d.1940
A Belgian composer who wrote two cello concertos (in 1927 and in 1930), a Poème for cello and orchestra (1910), and also a work for two cellos and orchestra. The interest in writing for the cello almost surely came about by his marriage in 1906 to Jeanne Fromont (1885-1960), a cellist and concert pianist.

** 1890 - a notable historical concert on this day: an orchestral concert featuring soloists Miss Alice Whitacre (vocal), Joseph Joachim (violin) and Ernest Gillet (cello). The programme included the ‘new’ Brahms Double Concerto for Violin and Violoncello (Crystal Palace, London)

** 1906 - a notable historical concert on this day: the Joachim Quartet (Joachim, Kruse, Wirth, Robert Hausmann on cello), with Moser on 2nd viola, and Hugo Dechert on 2nd violoncello. The programme was an ‘All Brahms’ concert and included: Quartet No.3 in Bb major, Op.67, Quintet No.1 in F major, Op.88, and the Sextet No.1 in Bb major, Op.18 (Sing-Akademie, Berlin)

** 1907 - Alwin Schroeder performed Davidoff's second concerto in D Major, with the Russian SO under fellow cellist Modest Altschuler, in New York. It was also advertised as "first time," at least for New York audiences. Of this performance, W. J. Henderson, critic for the New York Sun, March 15, 1907) wrote:
“Mr. Schroeder played the Davidoff music with the mellowness, repose and depth of style which come to an artist in the period of his maturity, when he no longer regards the cosmos as a field for his triumphs, but effaces himself and ministers as a devout priest before the altar of high art. The audience was moved by the performance, and the applause which followed it had the unmistakable sincerity of an assemblage aroused by a beautiful message.”

** 1914 - cellist Gerard Hekking performed as soloist with the Concertgebouw Orchestra, in Schumann – Cello Concerto, Op.129. Two concerts, in Nikmegen (14th March) and Amsterdam (15th March, where he also performed Lalo - Cello Concerto on the same programme), conducted by Willem Mengelberg

** 1918 - Edward Elgar undergoes a tonsillectomy in London - the operation is a success but recovery was to be slow - few people know but while hospitalized, Elgar was to write down the opening theme of his Cello Concerto!

** 1931 - cellist Enrico Mainardi performed as soloist with the Concertgebouw Orchestra, in Boccherini - Cello Concerto in G Major. Concert in Amsterdam, conducted by Willem Mengelberg

** 1933 - birth of Ruth Bader Ginsburg (Brooklyn, New York) d.2020
a very important American jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States over 25 years; and an adolescent cellist with happy memories! She said in an interview:
“I took piano lessons from age eight to age sixteen, then for a year at Cornell University, 1952, where I also took Music 101 and 102 - the basic music course. I took cello lessons from 1946 to 1947, then played cello - not well - in my high-school orchestra from 1947 to 1950 - among the best experiences in my growing-up years.”

** 1953 - cellist Tibor de Machula performed as soloist with the Concertgebouw Orchestra, in Strauss – Don Quixote, Op.35. Three concerts, in Amsterdam (15th March), Iserlohn (9th April) and Krefeld (10th April), conducted by Eduard van Beinum

** 1953 – Reading Symphony Orchestra (Pennsylvania, U.S.A.), under conductor Alexander Hilsberg, programmed a concert on this day featuring both the Concerto for Violoncello and Orchestra No. 1 in in A Minor, Op. 33 by Camille Saint-Saëns and the Variations on a Rococo Theme for Violoncello and Orchestra, Op. 33 by Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, with soloist Leonard Rose, cellist

** 1957 – cellist Janos Starker performed as soloist with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in Saint-Saëns Cello Concerto in A minor, Op.33, with Fritz Reiner, conductor (14th and 15th March)

** 1957 - first performance of Crumb - Solo Cello Sonata
soloist Camilla Doppman (USA - Ann Arbor, Michigan)

** 1959 - cellist Tibor de Machula performed as soloist with the Concertgebouw Orchestra, in Haydn – Cello Concerto in D Major. Two concerts, in Den Haag (14th March) and Amsterdam (15th March), conducted by Eduard van Beinum

** 1960 - Simone and Francoise Pierrat, two young French ladies, who besides being sisters were a 'cello and piano duo, made their New York debut at Carnegie Recital Hall. The New York Times titled the review “Simone and Francoise Pierrat, Sisters, Impress in 'Cello and Piano Program”

** 1974 - cellist Tibor de Machula performed as soloist with the Concertgebouw Orchestra, in Strauss – Don Quixote, Op.35. Two concerts, in Amsterdam (15th and 17th March), conducted by David Zinman

** 1978 - cellist and conductor Mstislav Rostropovich and his wife, soprano Galina Vishnevskaya, have their Soviet citizenship revoked

** 1978 - on this day cellist Pierre Fournier made a live recording of Martinu - Cello Concerto No.1 in Geneva, with the orchestra of the Suisse Romande, conducted by Wolfgang Swallisch - later issued on CD

** 1985 - Christopher Bunting gave the first performance of his own cello concerto with the Peterborough String Orchestra in Peterborough!

** 1990 - the premiere of John Corigliano - Symphony No.1 (written 1988) took place at the Symphony Centre, Chicago with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra conducted by Daniel Baremboim. Its great interest for cellists lays here:
The third movement, Chaconne: Giulio’s Song was written in memory of a college friend of the composer, Giulio, an amateur cellist. The chaconne, a recurring harmonic pattern, is followed by solo cello representing his friend. A second cello joins in, a remembrance of Giulio’s cello teacher.
The final movement – Epilogue – begins with a solo cello. Each of the friends and their music is recalled: the piano from the first movement, the clarinet playing the tarantella folk tune, the solo cellos. Antiphonal waves, led by brass, burble and churn underneath. The work ends on a dying “A” in the solo cello.

** 1991 - premiere of Francisco Manuel Balboa Rodríguez - Preludio de ‘A noite vai coma un rio’, by Andrés Ruiz/cello and Pablo Ferreño /piano
‘I Semana Cultural de la Diputación’, Teatro Rosalía, La Coruña, Galicia, Spain

** 1991 - premieres and live recordings, for Spanish National Radio, of Francisco Manuel Balboa Rodríguez - Solamente (a la memoria de Mará Zembrano), Francisco Manuel Balboa Rodríguez - Preludio de ‘A noite vai coma un rio’, and Juan Vara García - ‘Tiempo para una distancia secreta’ given by Herre-Jan Stegenga/cello, and Emmanuel Ferrer/piano
‘V Xornadas de Música Contemporánea’, Auditorio de Galicia, Santiago de Compostela, Galicia, Spain

** 1995 - Antonio Meneses was invited cello soloist with the BBC Symphony Orchestra (? work ?)