Description

WILLEM WILLEKE (THE HAGUE, NETHERLANDS, 29 SEPTEMBER, 1879 — MASSACHUSETTS, USA, 26 NOVEMBER, 1950)

He was a remarkable child prodigy who played both the cello and the piano, and while still a youngster played the Haydn D Major Cello Concerto and the Schumann Piano Concerto on the same program. He was the admiration of Johannes Brahms, learned all of Brahms’ cello works, and performed many of them with Brahms at the piano. Even so, he aspired to become a physician, and studied in Bonn and Vienna, winning his degrees. Nevertheless, Joseph Joachim, the great violinist and another friend of Brahms, repeatedly urged Willeke to return to music. When he agreed, he started his career with a tour of Scandinavia in which he played the Grieg sonata with the composer at the keyboard. And, again, when he played the Strauss sonata, that composer was his accompaniment. During the first decade of the twentieth century he appeared with all the famous orchestras of Europe, and was appointed Royal Cellist to the Austro-Hungarian Emperor. He came to the United States in 1907 as cellist with the Kneisel String Quartet. At that point, he began to take an active part in American musical life. In 1917, when the Kneisel disbanded, he founded an ensemble called the Elshuco Trio. The unusual first name was derived from the first syllables of the name of their patroness, Elizabeth Shurtleff Coolidge. (This lady, a person of historical importance in the development American chamber music, soon replaced the middle name, which was her husband’s, with her own maiden name, Sprague.) Mrs. Coolidge in 1918 founded the Berkshire Festival of Chamber Music and named Willeke its first Musical Director. He stayed in that capacity until his death in 1950, and was succeeded by his widow. Willeke was also the leading cello teacher at the Institute for Musical Art in New York, which merged with the Juilliard School in 1926, and left a strong legacy of many talented pupils to enrich American musical life.

TRACKLIST

1. Andante – Concerto, No. 2 in D minor (Goltermann) Josef Adler (piano) Edison 82152-R  6186-B-1-1 1918
2. Elshuco Trio Farniente (Cui) with William Kroll (violin) and Aurelio Giorni (piano) Brunswick 10146-A 10146A 1924
3. Elshuco Trio Farniente (Cui) with William Kroll (violin) and Aurelio Giorni (piano) Brunswick 13092-A  8560 13092A 1923
4. Elshuco Trio Salut D’Amour (Elgar) with William Kroll (violin) and Aurelio Giorni (piano) Brunswick 13008-A 13008A 1920
5. Elshuco Trio Serenade (Op. 3) (Herbert) with William Kroll (violin) and Aurelio Giorni (piano) Brunswick 10146-B 10146B 1924
6. Elshuco Trio Serenade (Widar) with William Kroll (violin) and Aurelio Giorni (piano) Brunswick 13008-B 13008B 1920
7. Elshuco Trio Serenade (Widar) with William Kroll (violin) and Aurelio Giorni (piano) Brunswick 13092-B 8187 13092B M 1923
8. Evening Song Op. 9 No. 1 (Dessau) Josef Adler (piano) Edison 82152-L 6187-B-6-1 1918
9. Jocelyn (Godard) Berceuse Brunswick 10143-B 10143B 1924
10. Jocelyn (Godard) Berceuse Brunswick 13022B 13022-B 1921
11. Menuett (Haydn) Brunswick 7808 5139-B 1922
12. Nur wer die Sehnsucht kennt (Tchaikovsky) (vocal Elisabeth Rethberg) 10166 14743 Brunswick 1925
13. Tannhäuser (Wagner) Evening Star Brunswick 7804 5139-A 1922
14. The Swan (Le Cygne) Brunswick 10143-A 10143A 1924
15. The Swan (Le Cygne) Brunswick 13022-A 13022A 1921