Historical Events of March 4
4 March
** 1775 - birth of Robert Lindley (Rotherham, England) d.1855
cellist / orchestral principal cello, professor
** 1841 - birth of Friedrich Hilpert (Nuremburg, Germany) d.1896
cellist, court ‘chamber virtuoso’, orchestra principal cello & music arranger
** 1864 – cello soloist David Popper performed Volkmann’s Cello Concerto, Op.33 at a Löwenberg Orchestra Concert
** 1881 – Richard Strauss completed the first draft of the first movement to his Cello Sonata (to become his Opus 6) – the music was later substantially revised.
** 1886 - birth of Paul Bazelaire (Sedan, France) d.1958
cellist, arranger and pedagogue
** 1888 - the Andante cantabile from Tchaikovsky's String Quartet No. 1, Opus 11 (1871), was arranged for cello and string orchestra by the composer for a concert in February 1888. The orchestral version was transposed to the key of B major; in the quartet the movement is set in B-flat major. The first performance appears to have been at a private concert in Paris at the home of Marie de Benardaky on 28th February 1888, by members of Édouard Colonne's Orchestra, with Anatoly Brandukov as the soloist, conducted by the composer. Five days later, on 4th March 1888, the piece was given its public premiere at the 16th Châtelet concert in Paris, with the same soloist and conductor.
** 1902 – birth of Rozsi Varady (Budapest) d.1933
woman cellist, full career in the U.SA. when she died very young
** 1910 - the solo cellist Alexander Barjansky performed the Lalo Cello Concerto with the Wiener Concertverein
** 1916 – on this date the premiere was heard of Claude Debussy Sonata for Cello and Piano (written July-August 1915), in the Aeolian Hall, London, with C. Warwick Evans (cello) and Madame Alfred Hobday (piano). The music was dedicated to Emma Debussy (Emma Bardac), and had already been published before the first performance.
** 1917 – at a Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra concert, Friedrich Buxbaum was cello soloist (alongside Arnold Rosé – violin) in Brahms – Double Concerto in A minor, Op.102. Orchestral works of Schubert and Beethoven were also heard.
Conductor: Felix Weingartner / Place: Musikverein, Golden Hall, Vienna
** 1922 - Ruth Waddell was solo cellist, along with Camillo Ritter (violin) and M. Grierson (piano), in Beethoven - Triple Concerto in C Major, Op.56, with The Reid Orchestra conducted by Donald Francis Tovey, at the Usher Hall (Edinburgh).
** 1936 – cellist Diran Alexanian premiered Georges Enesco - Sonata (No.2) for cello and piano in C Major, Op.26/2, at a Paris concert at the École Normale de Musique on March 4th, 1936 with the composer himself at the piano
** 1943 - the Oxford Subscription Concerts presented the Oxford Orchestral Society with soloists Henry Holst (violin) and Anthony Pini (cello).
** 1946 - birth of Ralph Kirshbaum (Denton, Texas, USA)
cellist
** 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
** 1956 – a great quote on this day about Mstislav Rostropovich from The London Times
“His masterly playing combined sobriety and passion in a manner reminiscent of Casals in his prime. A ‘cellist can win no higher praise”
** 1970 - birth of Angel García Jermann (Marl, Germany)
Spanish-German cellist, orchestra principal cello, soloist and professor
** 1997 - first performance of Erkki-Sven Tüür - Cello Concerto
(Lausanne, Switzerland)
