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

 

 

1. 7 Variations on ‘Bei Männern’ from Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte, WoO46 (Mozart) London, EMI Studio No. 3, Abbey Road  Columbia  ML-4678 1934-07-11
2. Nocturne, op. 9, no. 2 (Chopin) W. Rebner piano Columbia JW77 55142B
3. Waltz in a-minor Op. 34 No. 2 (Chopin) Theo van der Pas piano Columbia LB18 CA 14597 1934-07-11
4. Serenata napoletana, op. 24, no. 2 (Sgambatti) Columbia LB18 CA 14598 1934-07-11
5. Orphée et Euridice – Mélodie (Dance of the blessed spirits) (Gluck) Theo van der Pas piano Columbia J8319 CAX 7218 1934-07-11
6. Träumerei (Schubert) Michael Taube piano Columbia J8269 2-20213 1930
7. Sadko – Chant hindou (Rimsky-Korsakov) Gerald Moore piano  Columbia DB1866 CA 17339 1939-02-08
8. Orientale, op. 50, no. 9 (Cui) Gerald Moore piano  Columbia DB1860 CA 17338 1939-02-08
9. Les millions d’Arlequin – Serenade (Drigo) Gerald Moore piano Columbia DB1866 1 CA 17337 939-02-08
10. Konzertstück in F minor, op. 79 – Andantino (Weber) Gerald Moore piano Columbia LX643 CAX 7905 1936-12-22
11. Scherzo for viola and cello (Hindemith) with Paul Hindemith, viola DB1789 CA 14295 Columbia 1934-01-23
12. Le carnaval des animaux – Le Cygne (Saint-Saëns) Michael Taube piano Columbia J8269 2-20756B 1928-04-30
13. Kol Nidrei Op.47 I The Berlin State Opera Orchestra, Cond. By F. Weissmann Columbia J8287 2-21649A
14. Kol Nidrei Op.47 II The Berlin State Opera Orchestra, Cond. By F. Weissmann Columbia J-8287 21650B
15. Dance Espagnole No.5 (Granados) Michael Taube piano Columbia J8276 2-20757B
16. Serenade (Schubert) Wolfgang Rebner piano Columbia J5578 201732B
17. Zigeunerweisen (Sarasate) Michael Taube piano Columbia J8276 2-20217A
18. Spring Song Op.62 No.6 (Mendelssohn) Wolfgang Rebner piano Columbia 201722B S63
19. Sonata for Unaccompanied Cello Op.25 No.3 Part I (Hindemith) Columbia CAX7076 A S1032
20. Sonata for Unaccompanied Cello Op.25 No.3 Part II (Hindemith) Columbia CAX7077 A S1032