On this cello day

** 1783 – news from July 1782, when preparations for Earl Abingdon’s first grand concert series in England were underway, it was regularly reported that the Earl was in negotiation with Haydn - audiences were explicitly informed that Abingdon had directly approached Haydn for new works: ‘Haydn is among the foreign composers, to whom Lord Abingdon has applied for new music at his grand Concert’ (a quote from the Morning Chronicle, 17th March 1783). This was important for cellists in the fact that the Haydn – Cello Concerto in D major would have been a project in this group of works!

** 1817 - birth of Julius Stahlknecht (Posen, Germany)
cellist, chamber musician & composer

** 1817 - birth of Ferdinand Büchler (Darmstadt, Germany) d.1842
cellist, orchestra principal cello & chamber musician

** 1874 - first joint performance of cellist David Popper and {first wife} Sophie Menter - piano (Bösendorfersaal, Vienna)
They had been a couple from 1872 until 1886, when they separated. They most likely performed informally before this day’s recital…

** 1883 - first complete performance of David Popper - Cello Concerto No.2 in E minor, Op.24
soloist - David Popper, conducted by Anton Rubinstein (St. Petersburg, Russia)

** 1900 - at the Crystal Palace Saturday Orchestral Concerts (South London) the featured invited soloists on this day were Mr Santley (vocal) and Herr Julius Klengel (cello). Interestingly the programme also included the first English performance of Klengel - Concert Overture in Eb Major, Op.35.

** 1917 - the Manchester City News gave an interesting report of the duo Hatton (cello) and Forbes (piano) on a performance of Debussy - Cello Sonata:
“…the Sonata for Violoncello and Piano by Debussy, in which the ‘cello was again revealed as an instrument strongly akin to the Debussy spirit. Full of strange and flowing emotions with which the composer has already dealt more fully elsewhere, the piece was like a spiritual arousal after travail. Mr. Hatton and Mr. R.J. Forbes made a very vivid thing of its jocular tauntings no less than its bizarre pleading”

** 1927 - Gregor Piatigorsky gave the Berlin premiere of Schelomo by Ernst Bloch, a work with which he was associated for much of his career.

** 1929 – in a Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra concert (today and yesterday), Friedrich Buxbaum performed as cello soloist in Bloch - Schelomo.  Conductor: Wilhelm Furtwangler / Place: Musikverein, Golden Hall, Vienna

** 1932 - a Reid Historical Concert at Edinburgh University featured the Edinburgh String Quartet (W. Watt Jupp, J. M. Begbie, Miss Margaret Ludwig, and J. Dickson) with guests John Fairbairn - viola and Ruth Waddell - 'cello. The performance included D. F. Tovey - Sonata for two cellos

** 1941 - first performance of Norman Dello Joio - Sonata for cello and piano
?/cellist with composer at piano (the MacDowell Club, New York)

** 1945 - first performance of Myaskovsky - Cello Concerto No.1 in C minor, Op.66, with cello soloist Sviatoslav Knushevitsky (the dedicatee) and the All-Union Radio Orchestra, conducted by A. Orlov.

** 1948 – birth of Andor Toth, Jr. (U.S.A.) d.2002
Principal cellist with the San Francisco Symphony. Professor of Cello at the Oberlin Conservatory in Ohio, where he taught for 30 years (1972-2002). In 1972, when Toth Jr. joined the Oberlin faculty, his father, who was also on the faculty, formed the New Hungarian Quartet. In 1982, Toth formed the Oberlin Trio with piano Professor Joseph Schwartz and violin faculty member Stephen Clapp.

** 1968 – at Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra concerts (on 16th and 17th March), cellist Emanuel Brabec played as soloist in Strauss – Don Quixote, Op.35 in an all-Richard Strauss programme. Conductor: Lorin Maazel / Musikverein, Golden Hall, Vienna

** 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

** 1977 – on the 17th, 18th, 19th and 22nd of this month, cellist Lorne Monroe performed as invited soloist with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra (conducted by Leinsdorf), in the Avery Fisher Hall (New York)

** 1981 - first performance of Rodrigo ‘Como una fantasia’ for solo cello
soloist - Carlos Prieto (Mexico City)

** 1987 - the Philharmonia Orchestra (London), conducted by Giuseppe Sinopoli, invited Matt Haimovitz as cello soloist, playing Lalo - Concerto in D minor

** 1992 – release of the pop song “Place your Hand” by Melissa Etheridge, which features the cello playing of actor and cellist Dermot Mulroney

** 1994 - cellist Heinrich Schiff performed as soloist with the Concertgebouw Orchestra, in Strauss – Don Quixote, Op.35. Three concerts in Amsterdam (16th, 17th and 18th March), conducted by Mariss Jansons