Historical Events of May 28
28 May
** 1810 - Weber finishes his ‘Variations for cello and orchestra’, J.94 in Mannheim just two days before the first public performance {see entry for 30 May}
** 1831 – Chopin wrote a letter to his family on this day, lavishly praising the abilities of the cellist Joseph Merk:
“Merk, as is his wont, made them more charming than they really are […] He’s the first cellist I’ve revered from close up’.
** 1836 - birth of Johann Karlowicz (Lithuania)
cellist, professor (Warsaw Conservatoire) and linguist
** 1889 - in the Princes’ Hall, Piccadilly (London) the second of a series of three chamber concerts took place featuring Josef Ludwig (violin) and W.E. Whitehouse (cello).
** 1895 - on this day young cellist Leontine Gärtner (born about 1874 in Hungary) made her debut in her own promoted concert at the Hôtel de Prusse in Leipzig. Accompanied on the piano by her teacher Julius Klengel, the artist performed David Popper's Concerto No. 2 in E minor, Op. 24, an intermezzo by Klengel and Karl Davidoff's ‘Am Springbrunnen’, Op. 20/2. She then, with Bruno Zwintscher, played Beethoven's cello sonata No.3 in A major Op.69 and finally with Klengel himself on cello the Popper Suite for two cellos Op.16. She received a very fine review too:
“The impression made by the young lady was a very favorable one, in that her game shows that the instructions of her mentor have worked excellently with her and that she is well on the way to becoming a true artist. For she has already known bow and finger technique, and the dexterity of her passage play is also connected with the necessary correctness; then their intonation appears in a purity that cannot be challenged, and finally, as far as the performance is concerned, it is thoroughly musical, lively, and correctly felt.”
** 1899 - in the series of the Sunday Afternoon Orchestral Concerts given at the Queen's Hall, Langham Place, London, featured soloist was cellist W.H. Squire with ‘Herr Emil Senger’
** 1925 – Aurora Bertrana Salazar (b.1892), Spanish cellist and novelist, married Denys Choffat on this day. Unfortunately, the marriage did not fare well for their strong political differences. Indeed, at the start of the Spanish civil war they were on completely opposing sides – and so decided to separate!
** 1933 – first performance of a work by cellist/composer Paul Bazelaire – ‘Invocation’, for solo mezzo-soprano, women’s chorus and organ
** 1957 - first performance of Bloch - Solo Cello Suite No.1
soloist - Zara Nelsova (BBC recital, England)
** 1962 – cellist Erling Blöndal Bengtsson recorded a live performance playing Leif Thybo’s Cello Concerto (1959) on Danish Radio.
** 1970 – cellist Erling Blöndal Bengtsson recorded a live performance playing Franz Xaver Neruda’s Cello Concerto No. 2 in D minor Op.59 (1887) on Danish Radio.
** 1973 - cellist Tibor de Machula performed as soloist with the Concertgebouw Orchestra, in Bruch – Kol Nidrei, Op.47. Concert in Amsterdam, conducted by Hans Vonk
** 1983 - birth of Jacob Koranyi (Stockholm, Sweden)
cellist
** 1992 – On 27th May, 1992, one of the few bakeries that still had a supply of flour was making and distributing bread to the starving, war-shattered people in Sarajevo, during the conflict. Soon after lunch (4.00pm), a long queue from its doors stretched into the street, when a mortar shell fell directly onto them, killing 22 people and injuring many more.
Very close by lived Vedran Smailović, a 35-year-old cellist who before the war played in the Sarajevo Opera Orchestra, and seeing the carnage he felt compelled to share what he could do….. on the 28th May and for the following 21 days, at precisely 4.00pm, he dressed in full concert attire and played the ‘Albinoni’ Adagio on the virtually empty street, one performance for each of the 22 lives lost. This amid the continued shelling, though he was never hurt. He became famously known as Vedran Smailović “the Cellist of Sarajevo”.
