11 - Technique, style and performing practice to c. 1900

Summary

The Violoncello is an Excellent instrument, not only in concert, but also for playing Lessons &c. This instrument may be Consider’d as a Large Fiddle only held the contrary way . . .

robert crome, 1765

The prevailing idea about the ’cello is that it does very well in a quartet, or trio, or in orchestra work, but that as a solo instrument it has no charm. This is very odd indeed, if you stop a moment to consider the violoncello for what it really is – just a big violin with a bass voice.

ray g. edwards, 1913

This instrument is not recognisable in his hands; it speaks, expresses, it renders all of the charm that was heretofore believed to be exclusively reserved for the violin.

review of jean-pierre duport, 1762

Well it is true that extraordinary artists, as for instance Servais, manage the violoncello so that one might believe one is listening to a violin concerto . . .

allgemeine wiener musik-zeitung, 1842

Violinists alone, of all string players, have been able to attain the popularity of singers or pianists . . . but in the last few years an artist has come to the fore, whose accomplishments have gone far toward changing traditional beliefs. Pablo Casals, the Spanish cellist, is now not only considered the greatest exponent of his instrument, but eminent musicians have pronounced him the greatest of all living interpreters.

current opinion, 1918

The preceding evaluations speak to the ever-present issue faced by those eighteenth- and nineteenth-century cellists who sought recognition as virtuosos: could their performances be as pleasing and acceptable to audiences as those of violinists? The accomplishments of such artists as Lanzetti, Jean-Pierre and Jean-Louis Duport, Romberg, Servais, Davidoff and Casals repeatedly proved that, indeed, the cello could easily match its smaller confrère in providing musical gratification. Yet to do so they, and other innovative and artistically creative players, had continually to recast themselves as the architects of modernisation as they searched for idiomatic performance techniques which allowed their music, in tandem with that of violinists, to be stretched, moulded, and refitted to conform with ever-changing stylistic requirements and regional preferences.