On this cello day

** 1729 - cellist Giuseppe Clemens Ferdinand (Barone d’all Abaco) was appointed ‘valet de chambre’ to the Elector of Cologne at Bonn. The salary was 400 guilders. He later received promotion there.

** 1773 - birth of Charles-Nicolas Baudiot (Nancy, France) d.1849
cellist, first cello king’s chapel, teacher & composer

** 1859 - birth of Hermann Heberlein (Markneukirchen, Saxony, Germany)
cellist, composer & music educator

** 1859 - birth of Eduard Rose {Rosemblum} (Jassy, Romania) d.1943
cellist {Nazi holocaust victim}

** 1860 - concert ‘debut’ of David Popper (performing Servais - Souvenir de St. Petersburg, Op.15)
Orchestra of the Prague Conservatoire, conducted by Hans von Bülow (Ständisches Theater, Prague)

** 1885 – at a Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra concert, Reinhard (Reinhold) Hummer was cello soloist in the Volkmann – String Serenade No.3, Op.69. Orchestral works of Haydn and Berlioz were also heard.
Conductor: Hans Richter / Place: Musikverein, Golden Hall, Vienna

** 1903 - birth of Nerón (Antonio) Ferrazzano (Buenos Aires) d.1977
cellist, double bassist, composer, tango specialist

** 1906 - In 1906 the Nora Clench Quartet - with cellist May Mukle - surprised the British public with a daring programme decision as related by The Times Newspaper:
“The members of the Nora Clench Quartet, greatly daring, introduced into their programme, on Tuesday night, Beethoven's great fugue, Op.133, a work of which the performances, all the world over, must have been very few indeed. The fact that it has never been played by the Joachim Quartet is a constant cause of regret to those who realize the perfect authority of their readings of the other 'posthumous' quartets” (Times March 29, 1906).

** 1928 - birth of Derek Simpson (Worksop, Nottinghamshire, England) d.2007
cellist, orchestra principal cello, chamber musician & professor

** 1931 - Mila (Mildred) Wellerson presented a debut recital under the auspices of the Naumburg Foundation on March 29th, 1931 in New York Town Hall, performing a programme consisting of Couperin's Pieces en Concert; Boccherini's Concerto in D major; Bach's C major suite; Stojowski's Concertstuck; Ravel's Piece en forme de Habanera; Bocherini's Rondo and Zigeunertanz by Jeral.

** 1943 - cellist Leopold Teraspulsky cellist makes his American debut 29/03/1943, in a recital playing works by Moor, Haydn and Martinu in New York Town Hall. He was accompanied on the piano by Erich Itor Kahn.

** 1947 - Felix Salmond gave a recital in the Juilliard School, New York, playing ALL five Beethoven Sonatas in one evening with a fellow faculty member, Leonid Hambro, to mark the silver jubilee of his American début, and the following year (1948) the duo recorded them.

** 1947 - birth of Aage Kvalbein (Oslo, Norway)
cellist,chamber musician & pedagogue

** 1969 - on this day cellist Paul Tortelier finished recording Tcherepnin - Solo Cello Suite, Op.76, in the Salle Wagram (Paris) (recording took place 27th to 29th March ’69)

** 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 / Festival Hall Osaka, Osaka, Japan

** 1984 - cellist Lynn Harrell performed as soloist with the Concertgebouw Orchestra, in Bloch - Schelomo. Two concerts, in Amsterdam (28th and 29th March), conducted by Bernard Haitink

** 1987 – cellist Erling Blöndal Bengtsson recorded a live performance playing Peter Heise’s (1830-1879) Two Fantasy Pieces (written 1860) on Danish Radio.

** 1989 - first radio broadcast performance of Peter Racine Fricker - ‘Aspects of Evening’ for cello and piano, Op.90
Alexander Baillie/cello and Piers Lane/piano (BBC Radio)

** 1989 – cellist Steven Isserlis gave the premiere of Howard Blake - Diversions - Concerto for Cello and Orchestra “Major Diversions on a Minor Theme” Op.337 (written 1984), with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Sir Charles Groves at the Fairfield Hall, 29 March 1989.
This was originally commissioned by cellist Maurice Gendron in 1984, when the composer orchestrated his 1973 piece for cello and piano ‘Diversions’ as a cello concerto. In 2011 Blake made a version for cello and string orchestra.

** 1991 - first performance of John Corigliano - ‘Of Rage and Remembrance’, for mezzo-soprano, boy soprano, chorus, percussion, eight cellos, and four double basses
(Seattle, USA)