Georg Goltermann was a German cellist and composer

Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

.

Life

Goltermann's father was an organist, and therefore he got an early introduction to music. He received cello

Cello

The cello is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin, viola, and double bass. Old forms of the instrument in the Baroque era are baryton and viol .A person who plays a cello is...

 lessons from Joseph Menter and in München and was noted there for his compositional talents.

In 1852, after briefly touring Europe as a solo cellist, he became music director in Würzburg

Würzburg

Würzburg is a city in the region of Franconia which lies in the northern tip of Bavaria, Germany. Located at the Main River, it is the capital of the Regierungsbezirk Lower Franconia. The regional dialect is Franconian....

. In 1853 he accepted an offer to become deputy music director of the municipal theater Stadttheater in Frankfurt am Main, where he was promoted to Kapellmeister (Main Director) in 1874.

Works

Goltermann wrote five cello concertos, the most famous of which is the fourth concerto. This concerto is considered the "student's concerto" because it is the easiest of his five concerti, and it is studied fairly widely. His music is rarely if ever performed in professional concerts and is deemed to lack the musicality of true concertos. Instead his concertos are studied by students to learn technique and get a basic understanding of the concerto.

Concerto No. 1 in A minor, Op. 14 for cello and piano

Concerto No. 2 in D minor, Op. 30 for cello and piano

Concerto No. 3 in B minor, Op. 51 for cello and piano

Concerto No. 4 in G major, Op. 65 for cello and piano

Concerto No. 5 in D minor, Op. 67 for cello and piano

Of the above, Concerto No. 1 was the one most played professionally up to the early 1900s and again after World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

. The slow movement entitled Cantilena was often played separately as a cello solo. An early recording still exists of this played by Pablo Casals

Pablo Casals

Pau Casals i Defilló , known during his professional career as Pablo Casals, was a Spanish Catalan cellist and conductor. He is generally regarded as the pre-eminent cellist of the first half of the 20th century, and one of the greatest cellists of all time...

. Many of Goltermann's shorter solos were frequently in the repertoire up to the 1920s.

Nocturne Op. 43, No. 3 for cello and piano

Nocturne Op. 49 for cello and piano

Nocturne Op. 54 for cello and piano

Nocturne Op. 59 for cello and piano

Nocturne Op. 92 for cello and piano

Trois Romances Sans Paroles Op. 90 for solo cello

La Foi Op. 95 for cello and piano

External links