Heinrich Grünfeld

German cellist Heinrich Grünfeld (1890s)

Heinrich Grünfeld (21 April 1855, Prague – 26 August 1931, Berlin) was a Bohemian-Austrian violoncellist; a brother of Alfred Grünfeld.

Life

Grünfeld was born as the fourth of 10 children in a poor family of a Jewish merchant Moses Grünfeld (*1817 Kolín nad Labem) and his wife Regina (*1826), born Pick in Prague - New Town.^[1] He was educated at the Prague Conservatory. In 1876 he went to Berlin and for eight years taught at the Neue Akademie der Tonkunst. In conjunction with Xaver Scharwenka and Gustav Hollaender (later with Émile Sauret, Max Pauer, and Florian Zajic), he arranged trio soirées which became very popular. In 1886 Grünfeld was appointed court violoncellist to King William of Prussia.

Grünfeld can be heard in an arrangement of Mendelssohn's Song Without Words op. 53, no. 2, together with violinist Alfred Wittenberg and pianist Moritz Mayer-Mahr, on acoustic Parlophon P 1736-I. These three artists toured widely as members of an established piano trio.^[2]

References

1. National archives of the Czech Republic: Národní archiv, Konskripční seznamy - pobytové přihlášky pražských obyvatel z let 1850-1914
2. Lengowski, Sara Janina, biographical sketch of Moritz Mayer-Mahr, University of Hamburg Music Research Institute, accessed December 13, 2010

Bibliography

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Isidore Singer & Joseph Sohn (1901–1906). "GRÜNFELD, HEINRICH". Jewish Encyclopedia.

• • Hugo Riemann, Musik-Lexikon;
  • Theodore Baker, Biographical Dictionary of Music and Musicians