Description

HANS BOTTERMUND (LEIPZIG, GERMANY, 1892 – BERLIN, GERMANY, 1949)

He studied with Julius Klengel (1859-1933), Hugo Becker (1863-1941) and Karl Schröder (1848-1935). He taught in Frankfurt and was principal cellist of the Berlin Philharmonic.  Bottermund was half-Jewish, and therefore had significant problems during the Nazi era, even though Wilhelm Furtwängler tried to stand up for him. He played on a 1694 cello made by Giuseppe filius Andrea Guarneri.  A letter by Bottermund traced much of its history from the 1780s onward as it went from the Northern Italian city of Bolzano to Prague to Dresden, Germany.  Bottermund bought it in 1912.  When the half-Jewish Bottermund faced persecution in Germany during World War II, he stashed the instrument in a bank safe in Copenhagen, Denmark, his wife’s native country. German property that was in Denmark could be confiscated by the government as war reparations. Bottermund survived the war but died a few years later, and his wife, who had relinquished her Danish citizenship when she married Bottermund and settled in Germany, faced a dilemma upon returning to live in Denmark. For legal purposes they were considered German, and the cello was considered German property, and she was afraid to take it out of the bank vault because she thought it would be taken from her as German property. Finally a couple of years later, she regained her Danish citizenship, and decided to bring the cello to the authorities and explain what had happened and just see what could be done. Apparently a court of judges ruled in her favor, they couldn’t take the cello away because Hans Bottermund himself had been persecuted for being Jewish.

TRACKLIST

1. Abendlied (Schumann) Polydor B68011 19971
2. Air (Bach) Polydor 19973 A 545 be V
3. Romance for Violoncello and Orchestra, Andante melancolico, Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester, Haus des Rundfunks, Berlin, conductor Sergiu Celibidache, 26-09-1945
4. Cello Concerto in A minor, op. 129 – Adagio (Schumann) Polydor 91005 19972
5. Du bist die Ruh (Schubert) Polydor B68012 19971
6. Largo (Händel) Polydor 19973 B 548 be V
7. Melodie (Gluck) Polydor B 91004 1158 1/2 BR I
8. Le cygne (Saint-Saëns) Polydor 23628 1159 1/2 BR VI
9. Kol Nidrei (Bruch) Pt1 Brunswick 90421 948BI
10. Kol Nidrei (Bruch) Pt2 Brunswick 90421 949 BI1