This Classic Archive program is dedicated to the French cellist Paul Tortelier. He made his début in 1931, but it was only in 1946 that he played as a soloist, as in this TV program from 1969, where he performed Beethoven’s Sonata No.3 for cello and piano, accompanied by the Italian, Sergio Lorenzi, on the piano at the Salle Gaveau in Paris.
Throughout his career, Tortelier often performed with his wife and children; as in these excerpts showing the family during their first English concert, at the Norwich Festival in 1964. First, Paul Tortelier performs the bourrée of the Third Suite for cello by Bach. Then, with his daughter and son, he plays La Lapoplinière and La Timide by Jean-Philippe Rameau. Following that, he plays the piano to accompany his wife in Fauré’s Après un rêve.
To finish, he performs the 2nd movement of Ravel’s Sonata for violin and cello, with his son, and, the largo and allegro of Haendel’s Sonata in trio, with his wife and daughter on the piano.