On this cello day

** 1797 - birth of Karl Henning (Halberstadt, Germany) d. about 1866
cellist & several other instruments; composer of educational pieces and tutors for the cello and the violin {his son was a violinist and musicologist living in the U.S.A.)

** 1816 - an Englishman with the name Percivall performed on this day as cello soloist at The Philharmonic Society (London).

** 1844 - premiere of Suppé - Operetta ‘Ein Morgen, Mittag und ein Abend in Wien’ (‘Morning, Noon and Night in Vienna’) {the overture features an important orchestral principal cello line}
(Theater in der Josefstadt, Vienna)

** 1879 - birth of Paul Grümmer (Gera, Thuringia, Germany) d.1965
cellist, chamber musician & professor

** 1881 - at the Crystal Palace Saturday Orchestral Concerts (South London) the featured invited soloists on this day were Mr Edward Lloyd (vocal) and Robert Hausmann (cello).

** 1887 - on 25th August, Tchaikovsky noted in his diary: "Worked on a cello piece" (Pezzo Capriccioso). On 26th August he noted: "Finished the cello piece in rough"

** 1890 - in the Princes’ Hall, Piccadilly (London) the second of two ‘Misses Geisler-Schubert and Fillunger’s Chamber Concerts’ featuring Herr Straus (violin) and Mr Whitehouse (cello).

** 1891 - an orchestral concert at St. James’s Hall (London) was given to mark the re-appearance in England of Jean Gerardy (cello), with Eleanor Cleaver (vocal), conducted by ‘Monsieur Ysaye’.

** 1892 – birth of Leopold Rostropovich (Voronezh, Russia) d.1942
solo cellist, chamber musician, professor, pianist and composer {father of Mstislav Rostropovich}.
In 1913, Leopold Vitoldovich moved to St. Petersburg and began working in the orchestra of the Mariinsky Theatre, occasionally appearing as a soloist. Rostropovich’s concert and pedagogical activities expanded significantly after the October Revolution of 1917. From 1918 to 1919 and again from 1923 to 1925, he worked in Saratov as a professor at the conservatory. In the early 1920s, he toured Voronezh, Penza, Orenburg, and other cities. In Orenburg, he married pianist S.N. Fedotova (a graduate of the Moscow Conservatory under K.N. Igumnov), who often accompanied him at the piano. From 1925 to 1931, Rostropovich served as a professor at the Azerbaijan Conservatory, performing both as a soloist and as part of the Azerbaijan Conservatory Quartet.
In 1931, Rostropovich settled in Moscow, teaching cello at the Gnesin School and district music schools. Among his students was his son Slava (Mstislav), who studied with him from the age of eight until entering the conservatory. Rostropovich also performed his own compositions - among his manuscripts are four cello concertos, one piano concerto, a piano trio, a suite for solo cello, pieces for cello and piano, romances, and other works. Some of these undoubtedly deserve publication in our time.
Evacuated to Orenburg during the war, Leopold Vitoldovich, though unwell, continued teaching and occasionally performed in concerts, including for wounded soldiers. In April 1942, he played the first movement of his own son’s cello concerto, accompanied by Slava on piano. On July 31 of that year, Leopold Vitoldovich passed away. {crediting Yuriy Leonovich for this information}

** 1896 – birth of Tauno Heikki Hannikainen (Jyväskylä, Finland) d.1968
A Finnish cellist and conductor. He studied first as a cellist in Helsinki and abroad, playing in the Helsinki City Orchestra. From 1922 he became the second conductor in the Finnish Opera House in Helsinki, and conducted the music at Sibelius's funeral. He went to the USA in 1940, becoming music director of the Duluth Symphony Orchestra (1942–47). He was an assistant/associate conductor (1947 – 1950), becoming principal conductor of the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra.
He was the son of the composer Pekka Juhani Hannikainen, and his brother and sister were highly musical.

** 1901 - on 26th February 1901, Alwin Schroeder and the pianist-composer himself performed the Erno Dohnanyi - Sonata in B-flat minor, Op.8 (1899) at a the Kneisel Quartet concert at the Mendelssohn Hall in New York City. At that time Dohnanyi was making his first visit to the United States, and this was likely the work's US premiere. Of this performance the New York Mail wrote:
“The Dohnanyi sonata for piano and ’cello... was interesting but over-long. …Yet the piece tells something, musically speaking; it contains some good thematic material, of which the best parts oddly enough are given to the ’cello…” (March 1901)

** 1902 – cellist/composer Paul Bazelaire started writing the work ‘Impression de Russie’ for solo cello and orchestra on this day in Warsaw

** 1903 - Guilhermina Suggia’s cello abilities were noted by Arthur Nikisch, the director of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, who warmly supported her official debut on 26th February, 1903, when she played Robert Volkmann’s Cello Concerto Op.33 with the Gewandhaus Orchestra under Nikisch’s direction. With this triumph, her time in Leipzig came to an end. She was now a celebrity!

** 1916 - a ‘New Reid Concert’ took place on today’s date at the Freemason’s Hall (Edinburgh) featuring the chamber music group: Charles Draper - clarinet, Percy Such - violoncello and Professor D.F. Tovey - pianoforte. The programme consisted of trios (including the Brahms Op.114, one of its first ever performances in Great Britain) and solos: notably Such and Tovey performed Beethoven - Sonata No.3 in A Major, Op.67

** 1921 – the Bournemouth Gazette reviewed the new cello concerto (Op.73) of John David Davis as:
“In the opinion of many it is superior to Elgar’s concerto, but it is more difficult”
The cello soloist was Jacques van Lier, and Dan Godfrey the conductor.
However, despite further performances in Cheltenham (1922), Berlin (1922) and London (1924, reviewed in ‘The Times’) it was the concerto by Elgar which became a household name….

** 1922 - birth of George {György} Horvath (Budapest) d.2009 {father of cellist Janet Horvath}
cellist, recitalist, orchestra musician {based Toronto, Canada}

** 1924 - first performance of Bax - Cello Sonata in Eb Major
Beatrice Harrison/cello and Harriet Cohen/piano (Wigmore Hall, London)

** 1925 - the Harrison sisters - Beatrice, cello and May, violin - were specially featured soloists in a Reid Orchestral Concert on this day. They performed two double concertos: Delius - Concerto for Violin, Cello and Orchestra, and Brahms - Double Concerto in A minor, Op.102, with the Reid Symphony Orchestra conducted by Donald Tovey.

** 1928 - on this day Pau Casals gives his last concert as a recitalist in the United States, at the New York Town Hall, a recital with Nicolai Mednikoff at the piano. In part, this might perhaps be explained by the fact that Casals’ relationship with U.S. soprano Susan Metcalfe grows very distant, leading to a definitive separation.

** 1933 - the London Philharmonic Orchestra gave a performance with soloist Gaspar Cassado (cello), conducted by Basil Cameron, at the Queen’s Hall (London).

** 1945 - Martinu finishes writing his Cello Concerto No.2 (not premiered until 1965)

** 1948 - the Oxford Subscription Concerts presented the Oxford Orchestral Society with soloist James Whitehead (cello).

** 1951 - the first performance of Howard Swanson’s ‘Suite, for violoncello and piano’ was given by cellist Bernard Greenhouse, with pianist Anthony Makas (in the U.S.A.)

** 1956 - in the National Gallery of Art, in Washington D.C., a performance was given by cellist Guillermo Helguera, with Richard Corbett /piano

** 1975 - cellist Jean Decroos performed as soloist with the Concertgebouw Orchestra, in Saint-Saens – Cello Concerto No.1, Op.33. Two concerts, in Amsterdam (26th and 27th February), conducted by David Zinman

** 1985 - Peter Racine Fricker completes his ‘Aspects of Evening’ for cello and piano, Op.90

** 1969 - first performance of Einojuhani Rautavaara - Concerto for Cello and Orchestra (Helsinki)

** 1986 – cellist Anssi Karttunen gave the premiere in Helsinki of Paavo Heininen’s Cello Concerto, Op.53, with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, conducted Leif Segerstam. The work was commissioned by the Finnish Broadcasting Company.

** 1994 - first performance of José Luis - Invisible, for eight cellos
cellists: Octeto de Violoncellos Conjunto Ibérico, conducted by cellist Elias Erizcuren (Madrid)

** 1994 - first performance of Agustin Charles Soler - Divertimento, for eight cellos
cellists: Octeto de Violoncellos Conjunto Ibérico, conducted by Elias Erizcuren (Madrid)

** 1994 - first performance of José Luis Greco -Invisible, for eight cellos
cellists: Octeto de Violoncellos Conjunto Ibérico, conducted by Elias Erizcuren (Madrid)