Historical Events of May 25
25 May
** 1835 - Servais gave a concert on this day in London, as cello soloist at the Philharmonic Society
(however, the reviews were rather critical of his playing, and of his expression and style!)
** 1867 - birth of Ernst Döring (Oldenburg, Germany)
cellist, career as soloist and especially as recital artist
** 1883 – the premiere of Antonius Johannes Bouman - Cello Concerto No.1, Op.3 (written 1882) took place on this day in Breda, Netherlands. It was first published two years later.
** 1898 - Norbert Salter was an Austrian cellist who played under Mahler in both Budapest and Hamburg (during 1891 to 1897). After Mahler left Hamburg for working in Vienna, in a letter of 25th May 1898, Mahler described Salter – presumably a candidate for a position in Vienna Hofoper, as only “an average cellist, who (unfortunately) would only play a mediocre role in our orchestra.” !
** 1900 - Danish cellist Agga Fritsche received lavish praise from the Leipzig Conservatory archives:
“on a lecture evening on May 25, 1900 she was faced with one of the most difficult tasks in literature: the fantasy on Russian songs [for cello and orchestra, Op.7] by Davidoff did an excellent job of completing her public lectures. Ms. Fr. has not a very big, but a very likeable, soft tone, a technique that can cope with even the most difficult problems and phrased with as much taste as intelligence”
** 1949 - birth of Norman Fischer (Washington D.C., U.S.A.)
cellist, cellist of Concord String Quartet. Professor at the shepherd School of Music at Rice University, previously teaching at the Oberlin College of Music & Dartmouth College
** 1950 – birth of Robby Steinhardt (Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A.) d.2021
A rock musician of the band ‘Kansas’ who played the cello, apart from being a co-lead singer and violinist.
** 1952 – birth of Nancy Green (Boston, U.S.A.)
cellist, primarily a recording artist of recital and solo cello works.
The minor planet 11067, discovered in 1992, is named Greenancy in honour of Green!
** 1961 – on this day, Wilfred Joseph began working on his Cello Concerto ‘Cantus Natalis’, which took him almost a year of composition, and which was to become his Op.34.
** 1965 - first performance of Martinu - Cello Concerto No.2
soloist - Saša Večtomov with Prague Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Zdeněk Košler (Prague City Hall). At that time, it had already been published by Associated Music Publishers.
** 1966 - first performance of Bax - Rhapsodic Ballad, for solo cello
(Cork Municipal School of Music, Ireland)
** 1969 - birth of Alban Gerhardt (Berlin)
solo cellist
** 1976 - first performance of Isang Yun - Concerto for cello and orchestra
(Royan, Fraance)
** 1982 – birth of Mike {Michael Glen} Block (Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A.)
American cellist, singer, composer, and arranger (classical, folk, jazz, bluegrass, rock, pop)
** 1994 - the historic film “The Trout” (by filmmaker Christopher Nupen) featuring Daniel Baremboim, Itzhak Perlman, Pinchas Zuckerman, Jacqueline du Pré and Zubin Mehta rehearsing and playing The Trout quintet at the new Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank, London, was screened for the EIGHTH time in Germany, and still drawing the biggest audience of all classical music transmissions on that network during the entire year!
