Leo Stern


Leo Stern was an English cellist, best remembered for being the soloist in the premiere performance of Antonín Dvořák's Cello Concerto in B minor in London in 1896.

Biography

Leopold Lawrence Stern was born in Brighton in 1862. His father was a German violinist and conductor of the Brighton Symphony Society, and his mother an English pianist. He initially studied chemistry at the South Kensington School of Chemistry, while studying the cello privately with Hugo Daubert. He worked in a business in Thornliebank near Glasgow from 1880 to 1883, but abandoned chemistry and entered the Royal Academy of Music, where he studied cello under Alessandro Pezze and then Carlo Alfredo Piatti. He later had lessons in Leipzig from Julius Klengel and Karl Davydov.
He appeared with Adelina Patti, Émile Sauret and Ignaz Paderewski, and in Paris played with Jules Massenet, Benjamin Godard and Francis Thomé. He was a favourite of Queen Victoria and often played at Windsor Castle, Balmoral Castle and Osborne House.
In 1895 he visited Prague, where his playing became well known to Antonín Dvořák. Although Dvořák's recently completed Cello Concerto in B minor was dedicated to Hanuš Wihan and Dvořák wanted nobody but Wihan to play it in public for the first time, it was Leo Stern who was given the honour. The premiere occurred on 19 March 1896 at the Queen's Hall, London, under the composer's baton. Stern played the concerto in Prague at the Leipzig Gewandhaus and with the Berlin Philharmonic. He was later summoned to play for Kaiser Wilhelm II at Potsdam. In 1897-98 he toured the United States and Canada. He played the New York premiere of Dvořák's Cello Concerto on 5 March 1897.
Leo Stern died in London on 10 September 1904, aged 42.
Stern used three cellos in his career:
There is now a Leo Stern Award, the Royal College of Music's senior cello award.

Marriages

Leo Stern was married twice, both times to American-born women. In 1894 he married Nettie Carpenter, a former child prodigy violinist who had gained first prize at the Paris Conservatory and studied under Pablo de Sarasate, who was the godfather to her child. Sarasate had also given her a gold-embossed violin bow. Stern was Nettie Carpenter's second husband. They divorced, and in 1898 he married Suzanne Adams, a well-known coloratura soprano.
He wrote some light songs, one of which was recorded by Suzanne Adams.