Six Solo Pieces from Emanuel Feuermann's Repertoire for Cello
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sample Piano Six Solo Pieces from Emanuel Feuermann’s Repertoire for Cello with Piano Accompaniment Compiled and Edited by Marion Feldman Table of Contents Piano Cello Acknowledgements.......................................................................................................... 2 About Emanuel Feuermann............................................................................................ 3 About Marion Feldman ................................................................................................... 6 A Conversation with Marika Hughes, Emanuel Feuermann’s Granddaughter ........... 7 Notes on Interpretation by Emanuel Feuermann ......................................................... 9 Manuscript: Adagio and Allegro........................................George Frideric Handel................... 2 Adagio and Allegro (from Concerto in G Minor, HWV 291, Op. 4, No. 3).. George Frideric Handel .... 11......... 6 At the Fountain, Op. 20, No. 2...........................................Karl Davidoff.................... 20....... 10 Hungarian Rhapsody, Op. 63.............................................David Popper ................... 30....... 14 Manuscript: Polonaise Brillante.........................................Frédéric Chopin .......................... 20 Polonaise Brillante..............................................................Frédéric Chopin .............. 42....... 24 Rondo ..................................................................................Antonin Dvoˇrák ............... 59....... 29 Manuscript: Variations on a Theme of Corelli..................Giuseppe Tartini.......................... 35 Variations on a Theme of Corelli.......................................Giuseppe Tartini.............. 72....... 38 Cover Photo: Courtesy of Feuermann Estate Copyright © 2014 by Carl Fischer, LLC International Copyright Secured. All rights reserved including performing rights. WARNING! This publication is protected by Copyright law. To photocopy or reproduce by any method is an infringement of the Copyright law. Anyone who reproduces copyrighted matter is subject to substantial penalties and assessments for each infringement. BF93 samplePrinted in the U.S. A. ISBN 978-0-8258-9533-3 3 About Emanuel Feuermann Emanuel Feuermann was born in 1902 in Kolomea, In 1918, Klengel recommended the now sixteen-year- Galicia, Poland. His father played both the violin and the old Munio to fill the professorship post at the Gurzenich cello and was his first teacher. His older brother, Sigmund, Conservatory in Cologne. It was unheard of for someone was a child prodigy on the violin, and as a young boy he so young to hold such a position. However, he passed toured all over Europe. When Emanuel (“Munio,” as the audition with flying colors and was hired. Along they called him) was given a violin to play, he insisted with teaching he was also appointed the principal cellist of upon standing it up “cello style.” His father had to affix an the orchestra and the cellist of the Bram Eldering String endpin to it and make it into a tiny cello. In 1907 the family Quartet. He held these positions until 1923, when he moved to Vienna to further Sigmund’s career. Emanuel was resigned in order to do more concertizing. Along with his not that serious about playing the cello but eventually took solo concerts he formed a piano trio with his brother and lessons with Friedrich Buxbaum, principal cellist of the Bruno Walter (later to become an acclaimed international Vienna Philharmonic and then later at the Music Academy conductor). For his sonata recitals he collaborated of Vienna with Anton Walter. with George Szell and Artur Schnabel, In 1912 Casals made his debut in among others. Vienna, playing the Haydn Cello Concertoin In 1929 with the death of cellist D Major. Munio went to the concert and Friedrich Grutzmacher, Munio was completely enthralled with the playing was appointed professor at the famed and the music. He demanded to have the Berlin MusikHochschule. He taught there musicCasals had played. He began practicing for almost four years. With the rise of the the first movement of the Haydn, totally Nazi regime many Jews found it necessary absorbed in its beauty. In 1913 he himself to leave Germany. Feuermann left a played the first movement at his own solo growing career in Berlin for London from debut with the Vienna Philharmonic with where he continued to do performances Felix Baumgartner conducting. all over Europe. His chamber-music His father, at this time, was totally performances included collaborations taken up with Sigmund and spent most of with Carl Flesch, Paul Hindemith, William his time promoting his “violin prodigy.” Primrose, Szymon Goldberg and Joseph Munio was left on his own and not Wolfsthal, among others. His international Photo: Cologne, 1919 touring took him to Holland, The Soviet much was expected from him in terms Courtesy of Feuermann Estate of performance. In 1917, at age fifteen, Union, Switzerland, Poland, China, Japan, he moved to Leipzig and this began a most fruitful period Singapore, and the United States. Some of his touring took of study with the well-known cellist and composer, him to Palestine and South America. His sister, Sophie, Julius Klengel. Here he was surrounded by peers who a fine pianist in her own right, accompanied him on played well and were studious. Along with this there was the piano on his tour of Palestine, where concerts were the opportunity to study with a fine teacher. He progressed arranged by his student Mosa Havivi. Sophie and Munio had significantly. Klengel wrote of him, “Of all those who have a fine rapport together as musicians, but his management been entrusted to my guardianship, there has never been thought it would be better not to concertize with a sibling. such a talent.” He developed an amazing ability to sightread As a result his concerts and recordings from this point and through a great deal of self-scrutiny, an impeccably were with other pianists. Myra Hess, Daniel Saidenberg, clean technique, especially in the upper ranges of the cello. Albert Hirsch, Franz Rupp and Gerald Moore can be heard He worked to eliminate the noisy shifts and slides that were on the recordings that are available to us from this period. so prevalent in the playing of cellists of his era. His musical Feuermann played on a number of fine cellos during thought and taste developed into a very sophisticated and his career. In 1929 with the help of Paul Reifenberg, a well- elegant style. known businessman from Cologne (and a good friend), BF93 sample 4 Photo: Courtesy of Feuermann Estate he bought a Tecchler cello. He remained friendly with the cellists flocked to his masterclasses. Meanwhile he travelled entire Reifenberg family even after he moved to London. cross-country to be able to do recordings in Los Angeles Eventually in 1935 he married their youngest daughter, Eva. with Heifetz, Primrose and Rubinstein. In 1940 he made In 1932 he bought a Montagnana cello on which he did some his amazing recording of the Brahms Double Concerto of his recordings. This cello was on the large size, so in 1935 with violinist Jascha Heifetz. Rubinstein, Heifetz and he sold it and bought the “De Munch” Strad. All of the rest Feuermann made plans to record the major piano trios. of his recordings were made on this cello. His debut in the Unfortunately, this was never to come to fruition. Along United States was in 1938 with the New York Philharmonic with recordings made on the Columbia and RCA labels we and twelve days later he gave a solo recital at Town Hall in have some that were issued from concerts he played with New York. These were played to enthusiastic audiences and the National Orchestral Association, in New York, under wonderful reviews. Based on this and his European the baton of Leon Barzin. These include the Dvoˇrák and reputation, his U.S. touring expanded between 1938 and Reicha concertos. In May of 1942, just at the height of his 1942. He played many concerts throughout the United career at age forty, he decided to have an operation on a States, including ones with the Cleveland Symphony, the painful hemorrhoid. Unfortunately, it was done in a very New York Philharmonic, the San Francisco Symphony, the small hospital by his family’s doctor. He died of peritonitis Philadelphia Orchestra and the L.A. Philharmonic. (infection) six days later. At the same time he was anxiously trying to find a home As Seymour Itzkoff his biographer wrote, “For most of for his new wife and his newly born daughter, Monica. They us who never knew Feuermann, the recordings are all that found an appropriate place in Rye, New York. Feuermann is left. For those who knew him, his life is still an exciting at the same time was appointed to the faculty at the memory, even after a generation.” 1 prestigious Curtis Institute in Philadelphia. Many young —Marion Feldman 1 Seymour Itzkoff. Emanuel Feuermann, Virtuoso. University of Alabama, p. 214. BF93 sample Adagio and Allegro 11 (from Concerto in G Minor, HWV 291, Op. 4, No. ! 3) for Violoncello and Piano "#" $#%&"#% &"' (