Historical Events of February 20
20 February
** 1853 – birth of Amanda Röntgen-Maier (Landskrona, Sweden) d.1894
Swedish violinist and composer, who also played the cello!
** 1890 - cellist Hugo Becker performed as soloist with the Concertgebouw Orchestra, in Raff – Cello Concerto No.1, Op.193. Concert in Amsterdam, conducted by Willem Kes
** 1899 – on this date the premiere was heard of Michele Esposito’s Cello Sonata in D Major with Henry Bast (also the dedicatee), cello, and the composer on piano, for the Royal Dublin Society
** 1900 - cellist Hugo Becker performed as soloist with the Concertgebouw Orchestra, in both Tchaikovsky – Rococo Variations, Op.33, and Eugen d’Albert – Cello Concerto, Op.20. Concert in Amsterdam, conducted by Willem Mengelberg
** 1901 - cellist Anton Hekking performed as soloist with the Concertgebouw Orchestra, in the Brahms – Double Concerto and also performed Bruch – Kol Nidrei. Concert in Den Haag, conducted by Willem Mengelberg
** 1912 - historical concert of Pau Casals and Eugene Ysaye playing Brahms - Double Concerto in the Great Hall of Vienna's Musikverein
** 1923 – at a Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra concert dedicated to the figure of pianist Elly Lüttmann, Rudolf Hindemith was cello soloist in the Beethoven – Triple Concerto (with Ludwig Wittels – violin, and Elly Lüttmann - piano). Orchestral works of Mozart and Dvorak were also heard.
Conductor: Ernst Bachrich / Place: Musikverein, Golden Hall, Vienna
** 1927 – first performance of Julius Chajes - Cello Concerto (written 1926), which took place in Vienna. Julius Chajes was a highly accomplished virtuoso concert pianist as well as conductor who settled in America as a refugee from the Third Reich in the wake of the Austrian electorate’s vote for annexation to Germany in the infamous plebiscite of 1938.
** 1957 - on this day cellist Paul Tortelier finished recording Honegger - Cello Concerto, in Paris, with the Orchestre National de la Radiodiffusion Française conducted by Georges Rzipine (the other recording day was 15th February ’57)
** 1957 - Leonard Rose was special invited cello soloist in two performances, where he played by the Tchaikovsky Rococo Variations, and in the Brahms Double Concerto in A minor, Op.102 alongside Yehudi Menuhin, on the 19th and 20th February 1957. Howard Mitchell was conducting the National Symphony Orchestra in the Constitution Hall of Washington D.C. as a dedication to the ‘National Brotherhood Week’.
** 1964 - Peers Coetmore (Cello) and Lee Kum Seng (Piano) appear to have recorded together on today’s date, but exact details are scarce
** 1973 - Peter Racine Fricker completes his Gigue for solo cello (F144)
** 1976 - first performance of Iannis Xenakis - Retours-Windungen, for 12 cellos
(Bonn, Germany)
** 1976 – on the 19th, 20th and 24th of this month, cellist Lynn Harrell performed as invited soloist with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra (conducted by Levine), in the Avery Fisher Hall (New York)
** 1984 – birth of Johannes {“Jo”} Alisch (Mannheim, Germany)
classical cellist and jazz bassist
** 1987 – on the 19th, 20th, 21st and 24th of this month, cellist Mstislav Rostropovich performed as invited soloist with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra (conducted by Shostakovich and Penderecki), in the Avery Fisher Hall (New York)
