On this cello day

** 1742 - birth of Jean-Baptiste Janson (Valenciennes, France) d.1803 {brother of cellist Louis-Auguste-Joseph)
cellist & composer

** 1742 - birth of Carl Monhaupt (Hamburg, Germany)
cellist, orchestra principal cello

** 1831 - birth of Morris Steinert (Scheinfeld, Bavaria, Germany) d.1912
A music merchant who played piano, organ, flute, cello and violin. After moving to the U.S.A. he opened, in New Haven in 1861, a music store selling used instruments and sheet music. After a a collegial and friendly relationship with William Steinway for nearly 25 years, he eventually he sold pianos of his own manufacture. In 1894 Morris Steinert was persuaded by a group of New Haven amateur musicians (many of the men of whom were also German-Americans) to form an orchestra. Steinert consented and so the group started rehearsals upstairs above his piano store. Incredibly, in a little over two decades the group was gradually transformed from a mere local band into an accomplished symphony orchestra of the U.S.! So, our hobby cellist can be credited as founder of the New Haven Symphony Orchestra!

** 1858 – the very young Hungarian cellist Rosa Suck gave her first public concert on 9th March 1858. There was substantial public interest – the ‘Pest-Ofener Localblatt’ had written the previous month: "Violin and violoncello are those instruments that are only exceptionally handled by women's hands, and in Pesth one has hardly ever heard a female violoncello player. This enjoyment should not be withheld from us for very long, since the fourteen-year-old daughter of Mr. Suck, professor at the conservatory, shows an extraordinary talent for this instrument"

** 1862 – on this day David Popper performed as cellist in a chamber concert in Prague, alongside Vilemína Čermáková (piano), Slanský (piano), Eduard Bachmann (voice), and Eleonora Ehrenbergů (voice). The complete programme was:
Mendelssohn: Sonata No. 2, Op. 58 // Goltermann: Concerto [No. 1] // Chopin: Scherzo No.2, Op. 31 // Servais: Fantaisie on Slavonic/Bohemian Folk Songs // Schubert: Der Neugierige // Schubert: Auf dem Wasser zu Singen // Schumann: Waldesgespräch // Schubert: selection from Die schöne Müllerin

** 1886 - first performance of Saint-Saëns - Carnival of the Animals {including for cello ‘The Swan’} (Paris)
The circumstances were the following:
Charles Joseph Lebouc (1822 – 1893) was a French cellist and composer. Born in Besançon, he attended the Conservatoire in Paris and later became a cello professor in the French capital. He played chamber music, and composed a little. In later years he organized annual private concerts on every Shrove Tuesday, and on one of these occasions, on 9th March 1886, the first performance of the Carnival of the Animals by Saint-Saëns was given, in which Lebouc, of course, played the so well-known cello solo, “The Swan”!

** 1891 - first performance of David Popper - Cello Concerto No.3 in G Major, Op.59
soloist - David Popper with Budapest Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Karl Goldmark (Budapest)
It seems that the success of this performance was not great enough for Popper to take the piece across Europe, being much smaller in scale than his more famous Concerto No.2 in E-minor, Op.24.

** 1893 - cellist Jean Gerardy performed as soloist with the Concertgebouw Orchestra, in Saint-Saens - Cello Concerto No.1, Op.33. Two concerts, in Den Haag (8th March ^^) and Amsterdam (9th March), conducted by Richard Hol (^^) and Willem Kes

** 1893 – birth of Hans Münch (Mülhausen) d.1983
A Swiss conductor, composer, cellist, pianist, organist and music educator. Cellist in the Basel symphony Orchestra. His own works include a symphony (1951), Symphonic Improvisations, and a number of cantatas. Professor of piano and later director of the Basel Conservatoire. Conductor of the Bach Choir of Basel. Between 1935 and 1966 he conducted the Allgermeine Musikgesellscaft in Basel.

** 1894 - first performance of Victor Herbert - Cello Concerto No.2, Op.30
soloist - the composer, with the New York Philharmonic Society, conducted by Anton Seidl (New York). He gave a second performance the following day.

** 1897 - the famous music critic Eduard Hanslick was present at the Viennese premiere of Dvorak - Cello Concerto in B minor, Op.104, and he wrote about the new work in the Neue Freie Presse, on 9th March 1897:
“Dvorak has written a magnificent work which has brought to an end the stagnation of violoncello literature. [...] Its melodic invention with unique, magical, south Slav nuances is well grounded in consistent contrapuntal treatment and masterful orchestration. In its broad but crystal-clear structure, the concerto introduces a number of surprisingly effective ideas – such as we have come to expect from Dvorak; I recall, for example, the flute trill which, in the second movement, is so exquisitely woven into the cello cantilena. As always, in this concerto, too, the violoncello is at its most beautiful and most natural in its energetic bass or lyrical baritone register, especially in the gentle Andante. The piece also incorporates the inevitable passages where we are given the chance to admire the technical skills of the virtuoso, but these lack beauty: the fast chromatic sixth-interval runs at the end of the first movement; the long demisemiquaver passages in the extremely high positions in the finale, and so on. The concerto’s soloist Mr Hugo Becker has further consolidated and heightened the glory he deserves. When Dvorak shares his triumph with Becker, there is plenty for both of them.”

** 1898 - Edmund van der Straeten received nice words on this day from famous cellist Alfredo Piatti about his new publication “The Technics of Violoncello Playing”; Piatti wrote:
“Dear Sir,--- I received the book you kindly sent me on The Technics of Violoncello playing, which I found excellent, particularly for beginners, which naturally was your scope. Yours sincerely, Alfred Piatti” [Cadenabbia, Lake of Como, March 9th, 1898]
David Popper also dated a nice response…

** 1904 - Pau {Pablo} Casals official New York debut concerto
Strauss - Don Quixote (Carnegie Hall, New York)

** 1913 - cellist Gerard Hekking performed as soloist with the Concertgebouw Orchestra, in Dvorak – Cello Concerto, Op.104. Two concerts, in Amsterdam (9th March) and Rotterdam (10th March), conducted by Willem Mengelberg

** 1916 - the Brahms - Double Concerto for violin, cello and orchestra was performed on today’s date by soloists Fritz Kreisler & Pau Casals with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Damrosch

** 1930 – cellist Gregor Piatigorsky performed as soloist with the Concertgebouw Orchestra, in Haydn - Cello Concerto in D Major. Three concerts, in Den Haag (8th March), Amsterdam (9th March) and Haarlem (11th March) conducted by Willem Mengelberg

** 1939 - birth of Rohan de Saram (Sheffield, England)
Cellist

** 1947 - cellist Paul Tortelier performed as soloist with the Concertgebouw Orchestra – in Jean Hubeau – Cello Concerto.  Concert in Amsterdam conducted by Thomas Beecham

** 1955 - cellist Antonio Janigro performed as soloist with the Concertgebouw Orchestra, in Haydn – Cello Concerto ion D Major. Three concerts, in Amsterdam (9th and 10th March), and Dan Haag (12th March) conducted by Eduard van Beinum

** 1983 - cellist Yo-Yo Ma performed as soloist with the Concertgebouw Orchestra, in Dvorak – Cello Concerto, Op.104. Three concerts, in Amsterdam (9th and 10th March), and Rotterdam (12th March), conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas

** 1992 - David Geringas/cello and Gerhard Oppirz/piano made a live recording for Spanish National Radio of Gaspar Cassadó - Requiebros for Cello and Piano (pub.1931)
Sala ‘Juan de Villanueva’, Museo del Prado, Madrid

** 1993 - first performance of Ennio Morricone - Second Concerto for flute, cello and orchestra
(Turin, Italy)

** 1999 – in just two solid days of recordings (this day and the following day) Ukrainian cellist Wladislaw Warenberg and pianist Sara Crombach were able to record an extraordinary amount of material; music of Saint-Saëns, Granados, Fauré, Gershwin, Bruch, Schumann, Rachmaninov, Tchaikovsky, Francoeur, Vivaldi, Dvorak and Rimsky Korsakov, in two full CDs reorded in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. All these performances came together with the well-used title “The Romantic Cello”