New Perspectives on the 19th-Century Cello

This book offers a rich variety of approaches to the nineteenth-century cello and cellists. Its range of topic and methodology reflects the new phase in historical performance research. Research in instrumental treatises and accounts of musical performances is broadened by researchers and performers who explore different cultural perspectives on the cello. This book contains the first sustained studies of cello sonatas by Emilie Meyer, Leokadia Kashperova, Mel Bonis, and Henriette Bosmans, and of Joachim Raff’s concertos. Alfredo Piatti’s Bach performances are shown to have predated Casals birth by several decades. Old and new approaches to teaching and research are explored in a study of the chamber music in the Paris Conservatoire’s cello method, the proposal of an imaginative process of ‘holistic emulation’ that can enrich historical performance, and a study of Victor Herbert that explores analytical methods in performance research. Performance techniques are analysed in Duport’s influence on Beethoven, Popper’s use of portamento, and an innovative historical examination of what might constitute romantic cello sound. Piatti reappears as a virtuoso in Bergamo, along with one of the greatest nineteenth-century virtuosi, François Servais, the Šťastný brothers, and Casals. This book combines archival research, source studies, early recordings, and art history. The contributors are a diverse community of scholars of the first rank, with international reputations for research and performance.

Repertoire Old and New

Natasha Farny, Romantic Archetypes in Cello Sonatas by Three Female Composers

Simon Kannenberg, The Missing Link – Joachim Raff’s Cello Concertos

Seonhwa Lee, Understanding Emilie Mayer (1812-1883) and Her Cello Sonatas

Job Ter Haar, «A Highly Interesting and Rarely Heard Violoncello Solo by Bach»: Alfredo Piatti’s Rediscoveries of the Old Masters

Teaching and Learning

Maximiliano Segura Sánchez, «Recueil de Passages de Haydn et Boccherini & c.»: Chamber Music Reception in the First Cello Method for Paris Conservatoire
 
Hilary Metzger, The Performance Preferences of Victor Herbert: A Case Study in Comparative Techniques of HIP Analysis

Victor García García, Becoming a 19th-Century Cellist through the Embodiment of their Holistic Musicianship

Techniques

Amanda Melo Massa – Felipe Avellar de Aquino, Knocking at the Doors of the New Century: The Collaboration of Duport and Beethoven Towards the Development of the Cello Writing and its Legacy Way Beyond the 19th Century

Aldo Mata, Popper’s Expressive Fingerings: The Lost Art of Portamento

Kate Bennett Wadsworth, A Fresh Look at Romantic Cello Sound

Virtuosi

Livia Laifrova, Unveiling Bernard and Jan Šťastný: The Contribution of the Two Czech Brothers to the European History of the Cello in the Early Nineteenth Century

Peter François, François Servais, the Paganini of the Cello, and the Belgian School of Cello Playing

Maurizio Merisio, Alfredo Piatti and the Unione Filarmonica of Bergamo: Originality, Performances for Cello, the ‘Permanent’ Orchestra 

George Kennaway, Casals, Art, Ornament: Perspectives on Performing Styles