Paul Tortelier

Paul Tortelier (21 March 1914 – 18 December 1990) was a French cellist and composer.

Tortelier was born in Paris, the son of a cabinet maker with Breton roots. He was encouraged to play the cello by his father Joseph and mother Marguerite (Boura), and gifted at 12 he entered the Paris Conservatoire. He studied the cello there with Louis Feuillard and then Gérard Hekking. He won the first prize in cello at the conservatoire when he was 16, playing the Elgar cello concerto, and then he studied harmony under Jean Gallon. His debut was with the Orchestre Lamoureux in 1931 at the age of 17. He performed Lalo's Cello Concerto.

In 1935 Tortelier joined the Monte-Carlo Philharmonic Orchestra as first cellist and played with them until 1937. He gave performances under Bruno Walter and Arturo Toscanini, and he also played the solo part in Richard Strauss' Don Quixote under the composer. This is a piece which became closely associated with Tortelier, as he gave many performances and recorded it.

In 1937 he joined the Boston Symphony Orchestra under Serge Koussevitsky, performing as first cellist through 1940. In 1938 he began a solo career at Boston's Town Hall, accompanied by Leonard Shure. He was first cellist of the Orchestre de la Société des Concerts du Conservatoire, Paris, 1946–47. In 1947 he gave his British debut under Beecham, again performing Don Quixote at the Festival of Richard Strauss in London. "My boy" Beecham said "you will be successful in England because you have temperament". In 1950 Tortelier was selected by Pablo Casals to play as the principal cellist in the Prades Festival Orchestra. Tortelier believed that of all the cellists, it was Casals who influenced him the most. A French critic wrote of him: "If Casals is Jupiter, then Tortelier is Apollo." Tortelier performed for the Peabody Mason Concert series in Boston in 1952.

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