Historical Events of April 3
3 April
** 1877 - premiere of the ballet ‘Swan Lake’ of Tchaikovsky on this day in the Bolshoi Theatre, Moscow; there is a famous cello solo in this music
** 1883 - birth of Anton Walter (Carlsbad, Bohemia)
cellist, member of Fitzner String Quartet
** 1903 - the Brahms - Double Concerto for violin, cello and orchestra was performed on today’s date in Dresden by soloists Neumann & Johannes Smith
** 1910 – the Russian/American cellist Sara Gurowitsch gave a fine performance (recital items), as reported by the Star-Gazette (New York) on April 3rd, 1919:
“She has a splendid command of her instrument….gets a beautiful tone, and plays with sureness and soulful interpretation."
** 1913 - birth of George Barati (Győr, Hungary) d.1996
cellist, conductor & composer {based USA}
** 1914 - birth of George Sopkin (Chicago, USA) d.2008
cellist, chamber musician. He was a founding member of the Fine Arts Quartet and faculty member at Kneisel Hall School of Chamber Music in Blue Hill, Maine
** 1933 - On this day - April 3rd, 1933 - with the rise of Nazism, great young cellist Emmanuel Feuermann simply lost his job at the Berlin Conservatory….because he was Jewish. He moved for a while to London, before settling in the United States
** 1940 - birth of Stefan Popov (Bulgaria)
cellist & professor {based London}
** 1941 - birth of Joel Krosnick born (New Haven, CT, USA)
cellist, chamber musician & teacher
He was the cellist in the Juilliard String Quartet from 1974 to 2016, performing the great quartet literature throughout North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia, with many recordings for the Sony Classical, Wergo, and CRI labels.
** 1943 – birth of Mario Lavista (Mexico City) d.2021
cellist, composer, writer - own music includes 2 works for cello and piano, plus a duo and trio including cello.
** 1958 - birth of Mark Summer (Encino, California, USA)
cellist (jazz), chamber musician
** 1970 – cellist Zara Nelsova performed as soloist with the Concertgebouw Orchestra, in Elgar - Cello Concerto, Op.85. Two concerts, in Amsterdam (3rd April), and Den Haag (4th April),conducted by Bernard Haitink
** 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 / NHK Hall, Tokyo, Japan
** 1977 - on this day cellist Paul Tortelier finished recording Tortelier - Solo Cello Suite in D minor, in the London Abbey Road Studios (recording took place 2nd to 3rd April ’77)
** 1979 – the premiere took place of Augustin Kubizek’s 'Concerto Breve' for cello and orchestra, Op.23, at the Radiokulturhaus - Great Broadcasting Hall, Vienna, Organized by the Austrian Society for Contemporary Music. The 15-minute work had been written in 1960.
** 1981 - first performance of Einar Englund - Concerto for 12 Cellos
(Helsinki)
** 1989 - first performance of Peter Sculthorpe - Djilie for cello and piano
(Brisbane, Australia)
** 1994 - birth of Edgar Moreau (Paris)
solo cellist, chamber musician
