Paul Tortelier

Paul Tortelier (21 March 1914 – 18 December 1990) was a French cellist and composer. After an outstanding student career at the Conservatoire de Paris he played in orchestras in France and the US before the Second World War. After the war he became a well-known soloist, playing in countries round the globe. He taught at music schools in France, Germany and China, and gave televised masterclasses in England. He was particularly associated with the solo part in Richard Strauss's Don Quixote, cello concertos by Elgar and others, and Bach's Cello Suites.

Life and work Early years Tortelier was born in Paris, the son of Joseph Tortelier and his wife Marguerite, née Boura. Joseph, who came from a family with Breton roots, was a menuisier-ébéniste – a carpenter-cabinet-maker – in Montmartre. Tortelier's mother had a particular love of the cello and he began to play the instrument when he was six. His general education was at the École Lucien Lafflessele, and from the age of nine he studied the cello with Louis Feuillard.

At the age of 12 Tortelier entered the Conservatoire de Paris, where he studied the cello with Gérard Hekking. While a student he earned an income in a trio playing accompaniments to silent films. He won the conservatoire's first prize when he was 16, playing the Elgar Cello Concerto, and then he studied harmony and composition under Jean Gallon. He made his professional début in 1931 at the age of 17, as soloist in Lalo's Cello Concerto with the Orchestre Lamoureux. and played the solo part in Richard Strauss's Don Quixote conducted by the composer.

In 1937 Tortelier accepted an invitation from Serge Koussevitzky to join the Boston Symphony Orchestra. He remained until the 1939–40 season. He was in Paris during the Second World War, teaching at the Conservatoire. He had a short-lived marriage to Madeleine Gaston, which ended in divorce in 1944. Within days Tortelier gave a recital with Gerald Moore at the Wigmore Hall and recorded the Strauss piece with Beecham and the RPO. He added: He later said, "I have played for Toscanini and Karajan, but I never felt with any conductor what I felt with Casals". More than any other cellist it was Casals who influenced him the most. Tortelier said that there was a spiritual quality in the older man's playing: "one never thought that Casals was playing the cello; he was playing music". He also absorbed Casals's approach to intonation, subtly sharpening or flattening the pitch of notes for the best harmonic effect. During this period he made his début as a conductor, with the Israel Philharmonic.

Tortelier's international career continued into his seventies. At a concert to mark his 75th birthday he was joined by colleagues including his friend Mstislav Rostropovich, who conducted the Saint-Saëns A-minor concerto with Tortelier as soloist and later in the concert joined him as fellow soloist in a composition of Tortelier's own, the "Valse, alla Maud".

Tortelier died of a heart attack on 18 December 1990 at the age of 76 in the domaine of Villarceaux, Yvelines, near Paris.

Composer, teacher and innovator

Tortelier thought it important for executant musicians to write music, because he felt it enabled him to approach even repertory works as, to some extent, an act of re-creation: blockindent|When I ask famous artists why they don't compose they invariably say they don't have the talent. But that is something that develops. They think the first piece they write should be their masterpiece. When it isn't – and it never is – they stop trying". and the second by Galliard in 1966.

Tortelier's students included Noras, Sommer, Jacqueline du Pré, Anne Gastinel and Nathan Waks.

If Tortelier had to play or tune a violin he would do so holding it vertically, like a miniature cello. After he tuned his son's violin thus on one occasion, the young Yan Pascal commented that it did not sound as good when tuned upright as when tuned in its normal horizontal position. Tortelier concurred, and further consideration of the point led him to develop a new kind of endpin, hinged to bring the cello down from nearly vertical to a slope, so that the instrument vibrates more freely, giving greater projection of its sound. This suited some cellists more than others,

Honours

Tortelier was an honorary member of the Royal Academy of Music in London, held honorary degrees from three English universities, and was a Commander of the Order of the Lion of Finland. Tortelier made three studio recordings of the Elgar concerto – with Sir Malcolm Sargent and the BBC Symphony Orchestra in 1953, Sir Adrian Boult and the London Philharmonic Orchestra in 1972, The BBC issued a recording of a 1972 concert performance of the concerto with Boult and the BBC Symphony, on a CD that also includes a performance of the Brahms Double Concerto with the Torteliers père et fils as soloists. His other recordings include concertos by Haydn, Saint-Saëns, Dvořák and Walton, Tchaikovsky's Variations on a Rococo Theme, Beethoven's complete works for cello and piano with Éric Heidsieck and the cello sonatas of Debussy and Fauré with Jean Hubeau. With Menuhin he recorded the double concertos of Brahms and Delius.

Notes, references and sources