Description

EMANUEL FEUERMANN (KOLOMYJA, GALICIA, AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN EMPIRE NOVEMBER 22, 1902 – NEW YORK CITY MAY 25, 1942)

 

 

 

 

Emanuel Feuermann was an internationally celebrated cellist in the first half of the 20th century. He was born in 1902 in Kolomyja, Galicia, Austro-Hungarian Empire (now Kolomyya, Ukraine) to Jewish parents. Both of his parents were amateur musicians. His father, who played the violin and cello, was his first teacher. His older brother Sigmund was also musically talented, and their little sister, Sophie (b. January 1908) was the piano prodigy in the family. Their father decided to move the family to Vienna in 1907 for Sigmund to start his professional career there. At the age of nine, Emanuel received lessons from Friedrich Buxbaum, principal cello of the Vienna Philharmonic, and then studied with Anton Walter at the Music Academy in Vienna. In February 1914, the eleven-year-old prodigy made his concert debut, playing Joseph Haydn’s Cello Concerto in D major with the Vienna Philharmonic under Felix Weingartner. In 1917, Feuermann went to Leipzig to study with legendary cellist Julius Klengel. In 1919 cellist Friedrich Wilhelm Ludwig Grützmacher (1866–1919), the nephew of Friedrich Wilhelm Grützmacher, died, and Klengel recommended Feuermann for Grützmacher’s position at the Gürzenich Conservatory in Cologne. He was also appointed principal cellist of the Gürzenich Orchestra, by its conductor (who was also the conservatory director), Hermann Abendroth. Feuermann became cellist of the Bram Elderling Quartet. At that time, he also joined a short-lived piano trio with his brother and pianist-conductor Bruno Walter. In 1929, Feuermann became professor at the Musikhochschule in Berlin and taught there for the next four years. The same year he purchased a cello made by David Tecchler in Rome in 1741. From 1932, he also owned an instrument made by Venetian master luthier Domenico Montagnana in 1735. He performed during this time with violinists Carl Flesch, Szymon Goldberg, Joseph Wolfsthal and composer Paul Hindemith, the latter playing viola in a string trio with Feuermann and Wolfsthal (later Goldberg; see below). He also performed with Jascha Heifetz, William Primrose and Arthur Rubinstein. On April 3, 1933, the newly installed Nazi regime dismissed him from his position at the Berlin Conservatory due to his Jewish origin. He moved to London along with Goldberg and Hindemith, where the trio recorded Beethoven’s early Serenade in D major for string trio, Op. 8, and a string trio by Hindemith, for Columbia Records. He toured Japan and the United States then returned to London, where he married Eva Reifenberg (a cousin of Katja Andy) in 1935, with whom he had a daughter, Monica. Following the premiere of Arnold Schoenberg’s Cello Concerto under Sir Thomas Beecham he lived for some time in Zürich, but happened to be in Vienna at the time of the 1938 Anschluss. Violinist Bronisław Huberman helped Feuermann and his family escape to British Palestine. From there they moved to the United States later that year. He taught privately, and at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, until his death. During these years he collaborated with the pianist Vladimir Sokoloff. Among his notable pupils were Bernard Greenhouse, Suzette Forgues Halasz, Robert Lamarchina, Alan Shulman, David Soyer and August Wenzinger. In the United States, he made several celebrated chamber-music recordings with Heifetz, Rubinstein and others. His relationship with Hindemith suffered when the latter chose Gregor Piatigorsky to premiere his Cello Concerto. Feuermann died in New York City due to complications during surgery on May 25, 1942, at the age of 39.

 

 

TRACKLIST

 

 

Anonymous Alt-italienisches Liebeslied P-2037-I 6953 1924 4 June, Berlin, Parlophon

Bach Suite no.3 in D for orchestra BWV1068 2nd movt (Air) P-1762-I 6956 1924 4 June, Berlin, Parlophon

Bach-Gounod Ave Maria P-1762-II 6957 1924 4 June, Berlin, Parlophon

Bach-Gounod Ave Maria P-9270-II 20755 1928 30 April, Berlin, Parlophon

Bruch Kol Nidrei op.47 P-9500-I, P-9500-II  21649, 21650 1930 27 January, Berlin, Parlophon

Cello Concerto In B Minor Op 104 I Allegro P-9667-I 0-7537, P-9667-II 0-7537 1928 30 April, Berlin, Parlophon

Cello Concerto In B Minor Op 104 Ii Adagio Ma Non Troppo P-9669-I 0-7539, P-9669-II 0-7539 1928 30 April, Berlin, Parlophon
Cello Concerto In B Minor Op 104 Iii Allegro Moderato Andante Allegro Vivo P-9670-I 0-7540, P-9670-II 0-7540, P-9671-I 0-7541 1929 27 September, Berlin, Parlophon

Chopin Nocturne in E op.9 no.2 P-1342-I 5835 1922 8 April, Berlin, Parlophon

Cui Cantabile op.36. no.2 P-2037-II 6960 1924 4 June, Berlin, Parlophon

Dvorak Cello Concerto in B minor op.104 2nd movt E 10482 E 10482 8759 8760 1926 25 March, Berlin, Parlophon

Dvorak Rondo in G minor op.94 P-1792-I 6958 1924 4 June, Berlin, Parlophon

Giordani Caro mio ben (arr. Popper) P-9270-I 20754 1928 30 April, Berlin, Parlophon

Granados Danse espagnol ‘Andalusia5 op.37 P-9291-II 20757 1928 30 April, Berlin, Parlophon

Haydn Cello Concerto No 2 In D Major Hob viib 2 I Allegro P-1298 I 5653 1921 15 December, Berlin, Parlophon

Haydn Cello Concerto No 2 In D Major Hob viib 2 Ii Adagio P-1298 II 5654 1921 15 December, Berlin, Parlophon

Popper Hungarian Rhapsody op.68 P-2233-I, P-2233-II, 8761, 8762 1926 25 March, Berlin, Parlophon

Popper Serenade espagnol op.54 no.2 P-1792-II 6958 1924 4 June, Berlin, Parlophon

Popper Serenade espagnol op.54 no.2 P-9123-I 20215 1927 8 April, Berlin, Parlophon

Saint-Saëns Allegro appassionato op.43 P-9112-II 20218 1927 8 April, Berlin, Parlophon

Sarasate Zigeunerweisen (ist part; arr. Feuermann) P-1342-II 5836 1922 8 April, Berlin, Parlophon

Sarasate Zigeunerweisen (ist part; arr. Feuermann) P-9110-II 0-7543 20217 1927 8 April, Berlin, Parlophon

Schumann Abendlied op.85 no.12 (arr. Popper) P-1395-I 6954 1924 4 June, Berlin, Parlophon

Schumann Träumerei op.15 no.7 (arr. Popper) P-1395-II 6955 1924 4 June, Berlin, Parlophon

Schumann Träumerei op.15 no.7 (arr. Popper) P-9109-I 0-7542 20213 1927 8 April, Berlin, Parlophon

Valensin Symphony no.i in G Menuett (arr. J. Danbe) P-9671-II 0-7541 20220 1927 8 April, Berlin, Parlophon