On this cello day

** 1795 - birth of Francisco Manuel da Silva (Rio de Janeiro) d.1865
songwriter, teacher, singer & cellist {writer of the Brazilian national anthem}

** 1854 - The publishing of Robert Schumann’s Cello Concerto took place amidst dramatic circumstances just when Schumann's mental instability erupted for the final time. The very night when he started having auditory hallucinations, he tried to calm the voices in his head by burying himself in the proof-reading of the Cello Concerto; and he did indeed finish it and sent it off on the 21st February 1854. Disaster was to strike – just six days later he threw himself in the Rhine from Düsseldorf. It therefore may be said that while the Concerto was not the absolute last piece he wrote (that honour seems to go to an Andante and Variations for 2 pianos, 2 cellos and french horn!) it is certainly one of the very last he was able to see all the way to its publication.

** 1857 – at a Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra concert, Karl Schlesinger was cello soloist in the Beethoven – Triple Concerto (with Josef Hellmesberger Jnr., and Julius Epstein - piano). Orchestral works of Schubert, Berlioz and Mozart were also heard.
Conductor: Otto Dessof / Vienna Court Opera, Vienna, Austria

** 1891 - birth of Teodoro Kotzarew (Hunsach, Dagestán, Caucaus región of old U.S.S.R.) d.1991
cellist, orchestra principal cello, professor {later based in Argentina}

** 1906 - the first reviews of cellist Serge Barjansky (but he should not be confused with Alexander Barjansky!) are to be found on reporting his debut concert on this day:
in the ‘Neue Zeitschrift für Musik’ on 21st February we could read “A young pupil of Klengel’s, the Eussian Serge Narjansky, made his debut on 17 February very happily in front of the Leipzig aydience ….natural-fesh grasp, genuine musical temperament, earmth of feeling and an already highly developed technique, the good geniuses have laid at his feet…one had to be grateful to him for his acquaintance with the cello concertos of Davidov and Lalo”
And on 22nd February 1906 in the ‘Musikalisches Wochenblatt’ the critic Paul Merkel wrote: “The artist, who possesses an excellent bowing technique, praiseworthy dexterity and an easily movable temperament, played the A minor concerto for violoncello by Ch. Davidoff and the D Minor concerto by E. Lalo, as well as the Notturno in D Major and Variations in A minor by Julius Klengel….his tone formation and tone treatment are very promising”

** 1920 - first performance of Delius - Double Concerto in A minor (1915)
soloists May Harrison/violin and Beatrice Harrison/cello, conducted by Henry Wood (London - Queen’s Hall)

** 1920 - Guilhermina Suggia was solo cellist in Dvorak - Cello Concerto in B minor, Op.104, with The Reid Orchestra conducted by Donald Tovey, at the McEwan Hall (Edinburgh). She also performed J.S. Bach - Solo Suite No.6 in D Major.

** 1925 – in a Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra “Ravag Concert”, Walter Klenecke performed Monn – Cello Concerto in G minor. Music of Michael Haydn, Wolf, Bittner, Korngold and Schmidt was also heard. Conductor: Rudolf Nilius

** 1951 - cellist Enrico Mainardi performed as soloist with the Concertgebouw Orchestra, in Haydn - Cello Concerto in D Major. Two concerts, in Amsterdam (21st and 22nd February), conducted by Josef Krips

** 1956 - birth of Richard John Campbell (London) d.2011
cellist, viola da gamba, early music specialist

** 1957 - on this day in 1957 in Tübingen, the cellist Günther Johannes Paetsch (then 28 years old) met the young 26-year-old American violinist Priscilla McClure Johnson, who was on a world tour at the time, and they fell in love!

** 1958 - a recital at Queensbury Place, South Kensington (London) was given by Amaryllis Fleming (cello) and Margaret Kitchen (piano), entitled ‘Musiciens Anglais et Francais d'Aujourd'hui’ and included the first performance of Searle - Suite, Op.29.

** 1960 - in the National Gallery of Art, in Washington D.C., a performance was given by cellist Ana Drittelle, with Anthony Makas /piano

** 1961 – the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra performed in Paris (Théatre des Champs-Elysées, Paris), with cellist Pierre Fournier as soloist in Strauss – Don Quixote, Op.35. Conductor: Herbert von Karajan

** 1965 - Lynn Harrell gave an ample recital for The Violoncello Society of New York (at New York Town Hall), performing: Francoeur - Sonata in E Major, Schumann - Fantasy Pieces Op.73, Beethoven - Sonata in A Major, Op.69, Koch - Sonata for Cello and Piano, and Tchaikovsky - Variations on a Rococo Theme. He was accompanied on the piano by Brooks Smith

** 1967 - birth of Michael Sanderling (Berlin)
conductor, cellist & teacher

** 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)