Cellist Emanuel Feuermann’s Complete RCA Collection

Sony Classical has now released Feuermann’s complete RCA album collection involving over 20 works

Sony Classical has released a seven-disc complete collection of the recordings made for the RCA Victor label by the famed Austrian cellist Emanuel Feuermann, with 11 works on CD for the first time — transferred from the original master discs. 

The new collection comes with liner notes by the GRAMMY Award-winning violin expert John Maltese as well as photos and facsimiles from the private archives of Feuermann’s granddaughter, cellist Marika Hughes.

Born in 1902, Feuermann was well-known for his involvement in the original “Million Dollar Trio” alongside pianist Arthur Rubinstein and violinist Jascha Heifetz. One of the early recordings they made after forming in 1941 was their classic rendition of Beethoven’s Archduke Trio.

He was considered one of the top cellists of his time, second only to Pablo Casals. Tragically, Feuermann died in 1942 at the age of 39 during a routine operation; his pallbearers included Eugene Ormandy, Arturo Toscanini, George Szell, Artur Schnabel, Rudolf Serkin, Mischa Elman, and Efrem Zimbalist.

Until the Nazi regime dismissed him from his position at the Berlin conservatory in 1933, he was based in Germany. It was later when he emigrated to the U.S. that his career reached greater heights, including the recording of several albums for RCA.

Produced in New York, Philadelphia, and Hollywood between 1939 and 1941, the recordings include the Brahms Double Concerto with Heifetz and Strauss’s Don Quixote (both with the Philadelphia Orchestra and Ormandy), and Bloch’s Schelomo with conductor Leopold Stokowski.

His benchmark RCA chamber music catalog comprises Beethoven, Schubert, Mozart, and Brahms piano trios with Heifetz and Rubinstein, and a Beethoven string duo and a Dohnányi string trio with Heifetz and violist William Primrose.

Other duo recordings, including those that have never been issued before, are with the German-American pianist Franz Rupp (accompanist of Fritz Kreisler) in Mendelssohn’s Second Cello Sonata, and short works and transcriptions ranging from Bach and Handel to Fauré and Canteloube.

To purchase and listen to the album collection, click here.

Conductor Eugene Ormandy noted that Feuermann’s playing “was something which led me on to what music really means, what it has to say,” while the musicologist Richard Taruskin insisted that “anything he played he engraved in your memory.”

“Feuermann had everything: an intense, focused tone that sings with expressive economy, controlled warmth, centered intonation, a smooth yet variegated bow arm, one of the most adroit left hands in the business (what effortless double stops!), unswerving integrity, and impeccable taste,” commented the American critic, pianist, and composer Jed Distler in the press release.

The works in the collection are:

DISC 1:

• Brahms: Concerto for Violin and Cello in A Minor, Op. 102 with Jascha Heifetz, violin
• Bloch: Schelomo - Hebraic Rhapsody for Cello & Orchestra

DISC 2:

• Schubert: Piano Trio in B-Flat Major, D. 898 with Jascha Heifetz, violin; Arthur Rubinstein, piano

DISC 3:

• Beethoven: Piano Trio in B-Flat Major, Op. 97 with Jascha Heifetz, violin; Arthur Rubinstein, piano
• Beethoven: Duet in E-Flat Major, WoO 32 with William Primrose, viola

DISC 4:

• Mozart: Divertimento in E-Flat Major, K. 563 with Jascha Heifetz, violin; Arthur Rubinstein, piano

DISC 5:

• Brahms: Piano Trio No. 1 in B Major, Op. 8 with Jascha Heifetz, violin; Arthur Rubinstein, piano
• Dohnanyi: Serenade, Op. 10 with Jascha Heifetz, violin; William Primrose, viola

DISC 6:

• R. Strauss: Don Quixote, Op. 35: Fantastic Variations on a Theme of Knightly Character

DISC 7:

• Mendelssohn: Cello Sonata No. 2, Op. 58
• Canteloube de Maralet: Bourée Auvergnate in A
• Fauré-Casals: Après un rêve, Op. 7, No. 1 (Transcribed for Cello by Pablo Casals)
• Handel-Feuermann: Organ Concerto, Op. 4, No. 3: Movement I (Arranged for Cello and Pinao by Emanuel Feuermann)
• Handel-Feuermann: Organ Concerto, Op. 4, No. 3: Movement II
• Beethoven: Introduction and Polonaise brilliante, Op. 3
• Chopin-Feuermann: 12 Variations from Mozart's Die Zauberflöte, Op. 66
• Davidov: 4 Pieces, Op. 20: 2. Am Springbrunnen
• J.S. Bach-Casals-Siloti: Organ Toccata in C Major, BWV 564: Adagio
• Handel-Feuermann: Organ Concerto, Op.4, No.3: Movement I
• Canteloube de Maralet: Bourée Auvergnate in A
• Davidov: 4 Pieces, Op. 20: 2. Am Springbrunnen
• Fauré-Casals: Après un rêve, Op. 7, No. 1 (Transcribed for Cello by Pablo Casals)
• Ochs: Arioso -"Dank Sei Dir, Herr" with Hulda Lashanska, soprano
• Schubert-Pasternack: Litanei, D. 343 with Hulda Lashanska, soprano