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Published: Thursday, 21 November 2024 at 11:26 AM
Best cellists: the 21 greatest cello players of all time, from Boccherini to Capuçon via Casals and du Pré
It’s the larger cousin of the high-flying violin – and it cedes nothing in terms of charisma. In the hands of wonderful players, the cello‘s rich, sonorous depths can thrill and move in equal measure, capturing the range of human emotions from joyful exuberance to deepest melancholy. But who have been the very best cellists?
These 20 musicians from the last 300 years represent the pinnacle of fine cello playing. All are utterly in command from a technical perspective, of course. More importantly, all of these players capture and hold the attention of audiences with their consummate artistry. Scroll on and prepare to be captivated by our list of classical music’s best cellists…
Best cellists of all time: 18th and 19th centuries
Luigi Boccherini (1743-1805)
Earliest in our list of best cellists is Luigi Boccherini. The Italian composer, best known for the Minuet from his String Quintet, Op. 11 No. 5, was in fact a highly gifted cellist. Boccherini studied with his father Leopoldo Boccherini, a cellist and double bass player, from the age of five.
Following further studies in Rome, he and his father were court musicians in Vienna. Thereafter, Luigi also performed as a court musician in Spain. Later patrons included King Friedrich Wilhelm II of Prussia.
A true virtuoso, Boccherini often played violin repertoire on the cello at pitch (i.e. as it would have sounded on the violin). He wrote a large amount of chamber music, including over one hundred string quintets for two violins, viola and two cellos, nearly a hundred string quartets, and numerous string trios and sonatas.
Boccherini’s orchestral music, meanwhile, includes around 30 symphonies and twelve cello concertos. These include the Concerto in B flat, which remains popular to this day.
David Popper (1843-1913)
The Czech composer and musician was one of the greatest cellists of his day, and composed some of the most fiendishly difficult works for his instrument. His virtuoso career encompassed high-profile tours, premieres and appointments, among them at the court of Prince von Hohenzollern-Hechingen in Löwenberg and as principal cellist of the Hofoper in Vienna.
Among his cello compositions are four concertos and a Requiem for three cellos and orchestra. There are also a number of shorter works, written to highlight the cello’s unique sound and range. His High School of Cello Playing, Op. 73, a book of cello études, is widely used by advanced cello students today.
Best cellists of all time: 20th century
Pablo Casals (1876-1973)
Pablo Casals revolutionised the cello as a solo instrument. In the words of Fritz Kreisler (himself one of our 20 greatest violinists of all time), Casals was ‘the greatest musician ever to draw bow’. He played for both Queen Victoria, at 22, and the American president John F Kennedy in his eighties.
Casals's most significant legacy, aside from the cellists he inspired, was the rediscovery of Bach's solo cello suites, previously dismissed as technical exercises.
Casals was driven by passionate political and moral convictions. These led to his voluntary exile from his beloved Catalonia from the Spanish Civil War until the end of his life. For 30 years he effectively silenced his instrument in protest against the West’s complicity in Fascism.
In the 1949 founded a festival in Prades where many legendary recordings were made.
Beatrice Harrison (1892-1965)
The British cellist gave first performances of several important works by Frederick Delius. She also made the first recording of Elgar’s Cello Concerto in 1920 with the composer conducting.
Hailing from a musical family, Harrison studied at the Royal College of Music in London, and under Hugo Becker in Berlin. Her performances became well known through early BBC broadcasts. She also made one of the BBC's earliest live outside broadcasts in May 1924 in the garden of her house at Oxted, duetting with nightingales.
Sir Henry Wood, Edward Elgar and Charles Villiers Stanford were all great admirers of her playing. Wood and Elgar conducted many concerts in which she featured as soloist. Stanford, meanwhile, dedicated his Ballata and Ballabile, Op. 160 to her.
Emanuel Feuermann (1902-1942)
A cellist of spectacular virtuosity and artistry, whose technical agility in the high registers led him to be named the ‘Wieniawski of the cello’, and of whom Toscanini said ‘there is no one after him.’
Taught by Julius Klengel, he was an influential teacher at the Berlin Hochschule für Musik. That came to an end in 1933, when he was dismissed by the Nazis for being a Jew.
Feuermann settled in America in 1937 and was immediately recognised as an outstanding soloist, and formed a fruitful partnership with violinist Jascha Heifetz and pianist Arthur Rubinstein, himself one of the greatest pianists of all time.
Their plans to record the complete piano trio repertoire were cut short by his early death from an infection after a minor operation.
Gregor Piatigorsky (1903-1976)
Born in Russia, Gregor Piatigorsky trained at the Moscow Conservatory and was principal cellist of the Berlin Philharmonic under Wilhelm Furtwängler. When Richard Strauss heard him perform, he said, ‘I have finally heard my Don Quixote as I thought him to be.’
He made his American debut to great acclaim in 1929 and remained, achieving a rare celebrity, through his brilliance, droll character and his association with violinist Jascha Heifetz (he eventually stepped in as the violinist’s cellist of choice several years after Feuermann died, and they recorded extensively together).
A virile performer, there was always a powerful core to his sound. William Walton dedicated his Cello Concerto to him.
Pierre Fournier (1906-1986)
A player of Apollonian calm and control, Fournier overcame childhood polio to enjoy a glittering career for over half a century. His style was nobly elegant and refined where Rostropovich’s (below) was muscular and extrovert.
He formed a highly successful trio with violinist Henryk Szeryng and pianist Wilhelm Kempff, who excelled in the music of Beethoven, and his vast recorded output has stood the test of time. His reputation was damaged during the Second World War when he agreed to perform in occupied Paris.
Paul Tortelier (1914-90)
The French composer and cellist toured the world following the Second World War as a high-profile soloist, taught at conservatoires in France, Germany and China, and gave televised masterclasses in the UK. Prior to the war her performed as an orchestral cellist in the Monte-Carlo Philharmonic Orchestra and the Boston Symphony Orchestra, one of America's original Big Five orchestras.
He was particularly associated with Richard Strauss's Don Quixote, Elgar’s Cello Concerto, and Bach's Cello Suites. A cellist firmly in the Romantic tradition, Tortelier was blessed with an excellent left-hand technique and a subtle, accurate bow arm. His tone was fairly narrow and concentrated, yet he could also play with considerable warmth.
János Starker (1924-2013)
The Hungarian-American cellist János Starker was a child prodigy who made his first public appearances at ages six and seven. As a student at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music from the age of eleven, he took inspiration from composers Leo Weiner, Zoltán Kodály, Béla Bartók and Ernő Dohnányi, all of whom were members of the faculty.
Starker was principal cellist of the Budapest Philharmonic Orchestra, Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and as a soloist made more than 150 recordings, including five recordings of the Bach Cello Suites.
From 1958 until his death, he taught at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, where he held the title of distinguished professor. Here are some reflections on Starker as a man and a teacher.
As a player he was known for his virtuosity, his smooth, focused tone, and his dislike of wide, Romantic vibrato.
Mstislav Rostropovich (1927-2007)
Rostropovich will always be remembered as the inspiration for the great cello masterworks in the second half of the 20th century.
Close friendships with the composers Shostakovich, Prokofiev and Britten gave rise to the former’s two striking Cello Concertos, Prokofiev’s Sinfonia Concertante and Sonata, Britten’s stormy Cello Symphony and the deeply personal three Solo Suites.
- Essential Rostropovich recordings
- Britten's Cello Suite No. 1: a guide to Britten's cello masterpiece and its best recordings
‘Slava’s’ legacy is astonishing: he premiered nearly 200 works in his lifetime, many commissioned by or written for him, and raised the cellistic bar with his powerful, virtuosic technique.
Natalia Gutman (1942-)
Multi-prize winning Gutman was something of a musical prodigy. She took up the cello aged five, studying first with her stepfather and subsequently her grandfather, before receiving lessons from Rostropovich at the Moscow Conservatory.
Gutman has performed with the world’s leading orchestras under conductors including Sergiu Celibidache, Claudio Abbado, Bernard Haitink, Riccardo Muti, Jukka-Pekka Saraste and Gustavo Dudamel. She has recorded extensively, and actively promotes 20th-century and contemporary repertoire.
A committed chamber musician, she formed a trio with her husband, the violinist Oleg Kagan and pianist Sviatoslav Richter – and also performed in a longstanding duo with Kagan, and in quartets and quintets with Yuri Bashmet and Viktor Tretiakov.
She makes our list of best cellists thanks to her robust tone and magnetic style.
Lynn Harrell (1944-2020)
Born to musician parents, the American cellist studied at Juilliard with Leonard Rose, and subsequently at the prestigious Curtis Institute with Orlando Cole, before embarking on an international career spanning nearly six decades as a recitalist, chamber musician, and soloist with major orchestras.
He was the winner of the inaugural Avery Fisher Prize and two Grammy Awards, and taught at many of Britain and America's most prestigious institutions including the University of Cincinnati, Royal Academy of Music, Cleveland Institute of Music, Juilliard School, USC Thornton School of Music, and the Shepherd School of Music.
As a player he was known for his beautiful, penetrating tone and for the richness of his sound.
Jacqueline du Pré (1945-1987)
An iconic cellist for the British, Jacqueline du Pré inspired a generation with her dazzling performances, until her career was cruelly cut short by multiple sclerosis when she was in her late twenties. Her heart-on-sleeve recording of the Elgar Cello Concerto achieved legendary status, and epitomised the rapturously expressive nature of her playing style. She is a fixture on any list of the best cellists of all time.
We have Christopher Nupen to thank for capturing her spirited, humorous character on film playing the great chamber works of Schubert and Beethoven with pianist Daniel Barenboim, violinists Itzhak Perlman, Pinchas Zukerman and, then on the double bass, Zubin Mehta.
Best cellists of all time: 20th and 21st centuries
Mischa Maisky (1948-)
Soviet-Israeli musician Mischa Maisky is the only cellist in the world to have studied with both Rostropovich and Piatigorsky.
He has worked with numerous high-profile artists, including pianists Martha Argerich and Evgeny Kissin, violinists Gidon Kremer, Itzhak Perlman and Maxim Vengerov, and conductors Leonard Bernstein, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Daniel Barenboim and Gustavo Dudamel. He has also made multiple recordings – in 2021, DG released a box set of 44 CDs representing his complete recordings for the Yellow Label.
A flamboyant personality, Maisky's playing can range from turbo-charged intensity to exquisite delicacy.
Heinrich Schiff (1951-2016)
The Austrian cellist and conductor Heinrich Schiff was born to composer parents and made his solo debuts in Vienna and London in 1971.
His recordings of the Bach Cello Suites, Shostakovich Cello Concertos and the Brahms Double Concerto with violinist Frank Peter Zimmermann won multiple prizes, and among his students were leading performers Gautier Capuçon, Truls Mørk, Christian Poltéra and Natalie Clein.
Schiff was known as a versatile artist whose musicianship was characterised by an historically informed approach. But after suffering a stroke in 2008, he gave up performing. By then, though, he had established himself as one of the best cellists to have graced the world's concert halls.
As a conductor, he was artistic director of the Northern Sinfonia (1990-96), and chief conductor of the Copenhagen Philharmonic Orchestra (1996–2000) and Vienna Chamber Orchestra (2005-8).
Yo-Yo Ma (1955-)
American cellist Yo-Yo Ma was born in Paris to musical Chinese parents. His mother was a singer, and his father was a composer and violinist. A child prodigy, Ma began giving public concerts at the age of five. By seven, he was performing for presidents Eisenhower and Kennedy. High-profile television appearances followed, cementing his relationship with such leading musical figures as Leonard Bernstein and Isaac Stern.
A graduate of the Juilliard School and Harvard University, Ma has received 19 Grammy Awards. He has also recorded more than 90 albums in repertoire. These range from core classical to American bluegrass, traditional Chinese melodies, Argentine tango and Brazilian music. Through his own Silk Road Ensemble, he has connected musicians from a diverse range of backgrounds.
As a player Ma is known for his smooth, lyrical tone, and technical facility.
Steven Isserlis (1958-)
Born into a multigenerational musical family, British cellist Steven Isserlis is an acclaimed soloist, chamber musician, educator, broadcaster and author of musical texts for both adults and children. He frequently appears with the world’s leading ensembles, and has also published several editions and arrangements of core repertoire, primarily for Faber Music. As an educator, he is artistic director of the International Musicians Seminar, Prussia Cove in West Cornwall.
Committed to authentic performance, Isserlis is also a keen exponent of contemporary music. He has premiered works by composers including John Tavener, Lowell Liebermann, Carl Vine, David Matthews, John Woolrich, Wolfgang Rihm, Mikhail Pletnev and Thomas Adès.
Isserlis has received universal acclaim for his scholarly musicianship, technical mastery, command of phrasing and use of distinctive gut strings.
Truls Mørk (1961-)
The Norwegian cellist Truls Mørk is recognized for his rich tone and refined interpretations. He has a particular affinity for Scandinavian music and contemporary compositions. His rise to prominence began after winning prestigious competitions, including the Tchaikovsky Competition in 1982.
Mørk has an adventurous and eclectic repertoire, spanning both the standard cello repertoire and more contemporary works. He has premiered numerous pieces, and has been a particularly strong advocate for music from his native Scandinavia, including concertos by composers such as Hafliði Hallgrímsson and Einojuhani Rautavaara.
He has performed with leading orchestras including the London Symphony Orchestra, Berlin Philharmonic, and the New York Philharmonic. His recordings, including interpretations of the Bach Cello Suites and works by Shostakovich, Prokofiev, and Dvořák have won praise and awards, including two Grammy nominations (for recordings of Shostakovich, Schumann and Bloch) and a Grammy Award for his Britten Cello Suites.
Sol Gabetta (1981-)
The Argentine cellist Sol Gabetta began her cello studies at the age of four. She won her first competition at the age of ten and has won multiple prizes and accolades in subsequent years.
Gabetta has performed with the world’s leading orchestras under the most celebrated conductors. She has also premiered works by composers including Michel van der Aa and Pēteris Vasks. Among her frequent collaborators are the violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja, with whom she has made several recordings.
A highly individual performer, she is celebrated for her pure, vibrant sound, her mastery of timbre, and her highly communicative performing style. All qualities that ensure her presence on our list of music's best cellists.
Gautier Capuçon (1981-)
Brother to violinist Renaud Capuçon, French cellist Gautier began his studies at the age of five. He later studied with Heinrich Schiff in Vienna.
Performing internationally with many of the world's foremost conductors and instrumentalists, he is also founder and leader of the Classe d'Excellence de Violoncelle at the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris. Recording exclusively for Erato (Warner Classics), Capuçon has won multiple awards and boasts an extensive discography.
Capuçon has won world renown for his expressive musicianship and exuberant virtuosity.
Alisa Weilerstein (1982-)
Last and youngest on our list of best cellists, the American cellist made her debut at age 13 with the Cleveland Orchestra playing Tchaikovsky's Variations on a Rococo Theme. Hailing from a musical family, she continues to play piano trios with her parents as the Weilerstein Trio.
A graduate of Columbia University, Weilerstein won the Leonard Bernstein Prize at the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival in 2006. In 2011, she received a MacArthur Foundation genius grant.
A champion of contemporary music, Weilerstein has worked extensively with composers Osvaldo Golijov, Lera Auerbach and Joseph Hallman.
She has won many admirers for her profound musicality in interpretations of great emotion and sophistication.