On this cello day

** 1823 - on this day English cellist Robert Lindley performed with the double bassist Dragonetti a sonata of Corelli (in London)

** 1857 – birth of Alfred Bruneau (Paris) d.1934
cellist and composer, specializing in opera.

** 1863 - birth of George Wörl (Franzenstahl, Bohemia)
cellist, posts in Vienna, Ziirich and Carlsbad; principal cello ( = chamber virtuoso) in court chapel and teacher of the conservatoire at Sondershausen; original compositions and arrangements

** 1890 - the Brahms - Double Concerto for violin, cello and orchestra was performed on today’s date in Berlin by soloists Ludwig Bleuer and Bruno Steindel with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra

** 1894 - at the Crystal Palace Saturday Orchestral Concerts (South London) the featured invited soloists on this day were Mademoiselle Rose Olitzka (vocal) and Hugo Becker (cello), including the first performance of Walter Wesche, Ballad for Orchestra, 'The Legende of Excalibur'.

** 1895 – Alwin Schroeder had performed the previous two days as cello soloist in the orchestral version of Antonin Dvorak’s Waldesruhe (perhaps an American premiere) with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. The Boston Herald’s music critic wrote on this day:
“Dvorak’s “Waldesruhe,” is a beautiful adagio, flowingly melodious in its themes, and marked by a frank simplicity that is rare in the composer. It was played by Mr. Schroeder with a tender warmth of feeling and a largeness of style that won for him long continued applause."

** 1898 - birth of Kazimierz Blaschke (Stryj, Poland)
cellist, conductor of chamber orchestras and choirs, educator.

** 1913 - On the way to a dress rehearsal of his students David Popper slipped, fell and fractured his upper right arm, with the result that all his teaching was cancelled for weeks.

** 1916 - Adele Clement, French cellist, gave a concert for the benefit of the Russian wounded, up to that point, in World War I.

** 1926 - first performance of Vierne - Cello Sonata, Op.27
Fernand Pollain/cello and Maguerite Long/piano (rue Rochechouart, Paris)

** 1927 - birth of Martin Lovett (Stoke Newington, north London) d.2020 {son of cellist Sam Lovett}
cellist & chamber musician

** 1934 - birth of Jimmy Garrison (Miami, FL, USA) d.1976
jazz bassist & cellist

** 1940 – birth of Caroline Bosanquet (London) d.2013
British cellist, music teacher at Anglia University, and a composer. Known for her books “The Secret life of Cello Strings: Harmonics for Cellists” and ““Fun with cello harmonics”, many music articles, and composer of an Elegy for cello and piano dedicated to the memory of cellist Joan Dickson.

** 1941 - birth of David Darling (Elkhart, Indiana, USA) d.2021
cellist, pop, new-age, multi-string cellos

** 1948 - cellist Tibor de Machula performed as soloist with the Concertgebouw Orchestra, in Dvorak - Cello Concerto, Op.104. Two concerts, in Amsterdam (3rd and 4th March), conducted by Eduard van Beinum

** 1951 - first performance of Murrill - Cello Concerto No.2
soloist - Vera Canning with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Basil Cameron (Henry Wood Birthday Promenade Concert)

** 1956 - cellist Bernard Michelin gives the premiere of the Cello Concerto by Marie-Brigitte Gauthier with the Pasdeloup Orchestra under the direction of Jacques Michon at the Salle Pleyel, Paris

** 1962 - cellist Tibor de Machula performed as soloist with the Concertgebouw Orchestra, in Schumann - Cello Concerto, Op.129. Four concerts, in Den Haag (24th February) and Amsterdam (28th February, and 1st and 3rd March), conducted by Bernard Haitink.

** 1963 – cellist Ennio Bolognini was the conductor at the inaugural concert of the Las Vegas Philharmonic Orchestra. In fact, he not only directed, but played a number of small cello solos too! The orchestra performed during five seasons, and Bolognini was also crucial in forming as professionals the younger generation around Las Vegas. Indeed, in 1976 he was the winner of an award from the Las Vegas Music Teachers Association.

** 1967 - Homage to Henry Purcell / Inaugural concert to mark the opening of the Purcell Room, presented by the Greater London Council by arrangement with the Apollo Society and given by April Cantelo and Robert Tear (vocals), Raymond Leppard (harpsichord) and Bernard Richards (cello)

** 1971 – Benjamin Britten composed his Third Suite for Cello Solo in a very short space of time; he started composing on the 23rd February 1971, and had finished the entire composition by 3rd March. This may well come as a welcome relief, because he was rather ill, and with handicap and depression. The music was a present for the great Russian cellist Mstislav Rostropovich, who had hoped to have given the world premiere at the Aldburgh Festival that summer, before the cellist was faced by censorship by the Russian government and the impossibility of leaving Russia at that moment. Therefore, the first performance was delayed until 21st December 1974, when finally he could perform it at the ‘Snape Maltings’ centre, close by Aldburgh.

** 1976 - birth of Karolina Jaroszewska {Jaroszewska-Rajewska} (Poznań, Poland)
Cellist

** 1981 - composer Gordon Jacob finished his Octet for Eight Violoncellos on this day, a work dedicated to Florence Hooton