On this cello day

** 1860 – The ‘Fantaisie La Romantique’ was one of Servais's earliest successes as a composer. It was written in about 1834. The work was never published in its original form during the composer's life. The first known performance of Fantaisie La Romantique occurred on 6th December 1834 and was performed under that title until 1842. It is likely that it was performed under yet another title between 1842 and 1860, when it became newly revised and ‘converted’ into Souvenir de Bade, with a new premiere on 23rd February 1860. There were notable differences; for example, the finale of the Fantaisie is a polonaise, but Souvenir de Bade is tarantella-like. The published version of Souvenir de Bade was dedicated to the wife of casino director and cellist Edouard Bénazet. According to the Servais scholar Peter François, “from 1856 to 1866 Servais performed almost every year in the German town Baden-Baden.”

** 1863 – in a Löwenberg Orchestra Concert cello soloist David Popper performed Servais – “Fantaisie characteristique sur deux célèbres Romances de Lafont”, Op.8

 ** 1876 – on this day Felix Draeseke completed his ‘Symphonic Andante’ for Cello and Orchestra (Symphonisches Andante für Violoncell und grosses Orchester) in E minor.

 ** 1891 - Pablo Casals gives his first cello engagement in Barcelona. On 23rd February he takes part in a benefit concert for the comic actress Concepció Palà at the Teatro Novedades in Barcelona. Isaac Albéniz writes a letter of recommendation for Pablo Casals, to Count Morphy, patron and secretary to the Queen Regent of Spain, María Cristina. He begins to work at La Pajarera, a café located in the Plaça de Catalunya, with performances every night as a trio with Ibarguren and Armengol. The group grows to six members and becomes part of the so-called Sextet de la Pajarera. During this year he meets the composer Enric Granados, with whom he begins a long friendship.

** 1902 – on this day the Catalan cellist Francesca Vidal Puig took part in a new concert of the Barcelona Philharmonic Society in which she played (again) Beethoven's Sonata in A major, this time accompanied by none less than Isaac Albéniz on the piano, and Beethoven's Trio in B flat major "Archduke" with Albéniz and Crickboom.
In relation to this concert, ‘El Diluvio’ newspaper of March 5th of that year wrote:
"La Señorita Vidal is a disciple of the illustrious Casals, she plays like her maestro, and with that everything could have been said; but we can still say more, and yes…. that we like her more than her maestro, [...] because her artistic content and virginal attitude captivate the senses and the intelligence of the spectators”.

** 1920 - on today’s date the ‘Surrey Mirror’ (England) was rather unkind to Guilhermina Suggia in the review of her ‘Holmesdale Fine Arts Club Concert’ - because usually criticism is for not showing enough emotion and not for showing too much! The exact words here were:
“Although Mme. Suggia’s spiritual face allowed full play to the stirring emotions the “Sicilienne” roused in her soul, we blush to confess that Fauré’s sentiment sounded cheap to us, and that Suggia put so much more meaning into it than either composer or listener was capable of, that we were ashamed to look her in the face while she was playing it.”

** 1937 – at a Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra concert dedicated to the figure of cellist Richard Krotschak, he performed as soloist in Guido Binkau – Cello Concerto and Saint-Saëns – Cello Concerto No.1 in A minor, Op.33. Music of Handel was also heard. Conductor: Guido Binkau / Musikverein, Golden Hall, Vienna

** 1939 - an Oxford Orchestral Society concert invited Antonia Butler as cello soloist.

** 1947 - in the National Gallery of Art, in Washington D.C., a performance was given by cellist Ardyth Walker, with Glory Fisher /piano

** 1949 - Daniil Shafran (Cello) and Nina Musinian (Piano) record Malagueña (Recuerdos de Viaje), Op.71 No.9, by Isaac Albeniz

** 1956 - Joan Dickson was cello soloist in a Reid Orchestral Concert - she performed Hans Gal - Cello Concerto, Op.67, with The Reid Orchestra, conducted by the composer

** 1962 - first broadcast performance of Gordon Jacob - Elegy for Cello and Piano (the work had been written in 1958) - the performers were Florence Hooton (cello) and Wilfred Parry (piano)

** 1967 - New York Impresario Sol Hurok presented Mstislav Rostropovich in 8 monumental evenings starting on this day in Carnegie Hall {to be exact, from Feb. 23 to March 12, 1967}. Rostropovich performed 30 cello concertos - offering standard concerto repertoire and new works, several of which were written for him and two were world premieres; many later released on record, including works from Elgar, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Respighi, Hindemith, Honegger, Britten, Khrennikov, etc.

** 1971 – Benjamin Britten composed his Third Suite for Cello Solo in a very short space of time; he started composing on the 23rd February 1971, and had finished the entire composition by 3rd March. This may well come as a welcome relief, because he was rather ill, and with handicap and depression. The music was a present for the great Russian cellist Mstislav Rostropovich, who had hoped to have given the world premiere at the Aldburgh Festival that summer, before the cellist was faced by censorship by the Russian government and the impossibility of leaving Russia at that moment. Therefore, the first performance was delayed until 21st December 1974, when finally he could perform it at the ‘Snape Maltings’ centre, close by Aldburgh.

** 1975 – in a dispersed series of concerts of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, cellist Robert Scheiwein was invited soloist with violinist Rainer Küchl in the Brahms – Double Concerto in A minor, Op.102. Conductor: Riccardi Muti / Musikverein, Golden Hall, Vienna

** 1983 – birth of Emily Blunt (London)
a versatile actress, who played the cello in her high school days!

** 1988 - first performance of Oliver Pina - Canción y danza montañesas, for cello and piano [the piece was dedicated to the composer´s daughter: Laura]
Rafael Ramos/cello and Josep Colom/piano (Casa Velazquez, Madrid)

** Birthday greetings – Rebecca Gilliver (born in Farnborough, England))
British cellist, member London Symphony Orchestra since 20092, principal cello from 2009. Professor at the Guildhall, Rebecca has also given classes at the Royal Academy and Royal College, amongst others, and runs her own cello course, The Dorset Cello Classes. Guest principal with orchestras all over the world.