Paul Tortelier

Tortelier (1914-1990) was the most charismatic of an exceptional generation of French cellists. Born in Montmartre, he was encouraged by his mother to take up the instrument and studied at the Paris Conservatoire with Louis Feuillard and Gérard Hekking, later returning to study harmony with Jean Gallon (he became an excellent composer). After spells in Monte Carlo and with Koussevitzky’s Boston Symphony, he returned to Paris and after the war began a meteoric career, founded on his peerless interpretations of the Elgar Concerto, Strauss’s Don Quixote and the French repertoire.