EMANUEL FEUERMANN was an internationally celebrated cellist.
Background
Born in Kolomyya, Galicia, to a musical family, Feuermann began his musical education by observing his older brother, Sigmund, practice the violin with his father. As a child he was taken to Vienna, where he first studied the cello with his father.
Education
He made his recital debut there at the age of ten and played in many recitals with his brother, organized by his proud and busy father. His official debut with the Vienna Philharmonic came in 1914, playing the Haydn Cello Concerto under Felix Weingartner.
In 1917 Feuermann moved to Leipzig to continue his studies with Julius Klengel. At the age of sixteen Feuermann was appointed to the faculty of the Gurzenich Conservatory in Cologne, where he was the first cellist in the orchestra as well as a member of the Bram Eldering Quartet.
Career
He made regular guest appearances in Riga, Warsaw, and Prague. A typical review from the time praises his “unlimited technique... the intensity of his timbre... in turn warmly dreaming and ecstatically temperamental.” Feuerman began recording in 1925 and eventually made some eighty records.
In 1929 Feuermann was appointed professor at the Hochschule fur Musik in Berlin, but was forced to leave Germany when the Nazis came to power.
During 1934-1935 Feuermann embarked on a world tour during which he made his American debut with the Chicago Symphony.
Feuermann appeared as soloist with most of the leading American orchestras and performed chamber music, initially with Artur Schnabel and Bronislaw Huberman and then with Arthur Rubinstein and Jascha Heifetz, before his premature death.
Views
Quotations:
FEUERMANN ON TALENT
What is talent? Desire to make sounds? Desire to create something beautiful? Vanity? A longing for something inexpressible? The fingers? The powers of concentration? Talent is composed of many talents and is dependent on fate. One likes serious music, another likes lighter music; one likes classical, the other modern. Speaking of the purely physical aspects, one may have a better left hand, the other a better right; one may have faster fingers, yet many have difficulties with trills; staccatos are also accomplished differently by each player. The greater the talent the greater the number of these qualifications the performer will be able to accumulate. Even perfect pitch does not predestine one for music. The really important factors are a feeling for form, perseverance and patience, thoroughness and lust for discovery.
Personality
Quotes from others about the person
A New York Times review from 1935 suggested that “difficulties do not exist for Mr. Feuermann, even difficulties that would give celebrated virtuosi pause. It would be hard to imagine a cleaner or more substantial technique, which can place every resource of the instrument at the interpreter’s command. And there is, more than technique. There is big tone, finely sustained in singing passages, and warm. There is palpable sincerity, earnestness, musicianship attained as the result of exacting study.”