Historical Events of May 29
29 May
** 1764 - birth of Jean-Henri Levasseur {the ‘Younger’} (Beaumont-sur-Oise, France) d.1823 {not related to Pierre-François Levasseur}
cellist, orchestra principal cello & professor
** 1839 - English cellist Robert Lindley performed, with second cellist Crouch and the double bassist Dragonetti, a sonata of Corelli.
** 1860 - birth of Isaac Albéniz (Camprodon, Girona, Catalonia) d.1909
pianist, composer, conductor…and occasional cellist
** 1890 or 1903 or 1906 (according to different sources, but on this day of the year!) - birth of Marian Neuteich (Lodz, Poland) d.1943
cellist, chamber musician, conductor & composer {Nazi Holocaust victim}
He studied cello, composition and conducting at the Warsaw Conservatory. When German troops took Warsaw in September 1939, they established a ghetto there in the autumn of 1940. Marian Neuteich led the ghetto’s Jewish Symphony Orchestra. However, in the spring of 1943, he was deported to the Trawniki concentration camp, a forced labour camp near Lublin. Marian Neuteich died there in 1943 under unknown circumstances. He was only about 37 years old.
** 1905 – the premiere of Henri Marteau’s Cello Concerto, Op.7, took place in Dortmund, Germany, featuring cello soloist Karl Piening. The dedication was given to the composer’s friend. Christian Sinding, and the work was published in Berlin that same year.
** 1907 - Beatrice Harrison makes her professional debut at only 14 years of age(!), playing Saint-Saëns - Cello Concerto No.1 in A minor, Victor Herbert - Suite {a London premiere} and Boellmann - Variations Symphoniques
conducted by Henry Wood (Queen’s Hall, London)
** 1920 - Beatrice Harrison performed for the first time in her career the Elgar Cello Concerto. She announced the event as the “second performance” but, in fact, both the first two performances were given by Felix Salmond. However, she also added - truthfully - “first with piano.”
** 1938 - German cellist Ludwig Hoelscher was soloist in the final concert of the first Reichsmusiktage in Düsseldorf, where the Nazi propaganda exhibition on degenerate music was also shown. Furthermore, Hoelscher had completed some radio recording sessions, which would have also been used for propaganda purposes, and played for the "Lichtfest" in front of the staff of four industrial companies.
** 1951 - a recital for the BBC Home Service Basic at 9.00a.m. featured Haydn Rogerson (cello), Josephine Lee (piano) and Elizabeth Boyd (soprano). Haydn performed a sonata in G minor by Marcello, the Bach-Siloti Adagio in C, and Moszkowski - Guitarre Op.45/2.
** 1957 - Release date (premiere screened in Paris) of the film “Love in the Afternoon”
directed by Billy Wilder, starring Gary Cooper, Audrey Hepburn and Maurice Chevalier
An American romantic comedy film. Young cello student Ariane Chavasse (Audrey Hepburn) eavesdrops on a conversation between her father, widowed private detective. Hepburn actually did some of the basic playing.
** 1958 – Janos Starker recorded (in two days starting today) the Haydn – Cello Concerto in D Major, with the Philharmonia Orchestra (London) conducted by Carlo Maria Giulini. The recording took place at the Kingsway Hall, London, for EMI
** 1966 - birth of Suzana Stevanovic (Belgrade, Serbia)
cellist, orchestral principal {Orquestra Nacional de Catalunya y Cuitat de Barcelona, Orquesta Sinfónica de la RTVE, work in orchestras of Belgrade, Zagreb, Sarajevo, Skopje}. Chamber musician and contemporary specialist. Professor of cello in the conservatoires of Liceu en Barcelona and of Guadalajara. Cellist of The Ravel Trio (with violinist Dobrochna Banaszkiewicz, and the pianist Héctor J. Sánchez).
** 1997 – on the 29th and 30th of this month, cellist Carter Brey performed as invited soloist with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra (conducted by Masur), in the Avery Fisher Hall (New York)
