David Popper, one of the most influential cellists of the nineteenth century, was greatly respected by Liszt, Wagner, and Brahms. Born in Prague in 1843, he showed musical talent at the age of three by imitating his father’s cantorial chanting. After studying cello with Julius Goltermann at the Prague Conservatory, Popper earned great renown through a series of European tours. On the first of these in 1863 he met the influential conductor Hans von Bülow, who not only performed with him, but obtained an appointment for him at the Löwenberg court chapel.

Having become principal cellist of the Vienna Hofoper (Court Opera) in 1868, Popper later joined the renowned Hellmesberger Quartet, which premiered several of Brahms’s works. In 1872 Popper married pianist Sophie Menter, pupil of Liszt, but the marriage dissolved fourteen years later. He moved to Budapest in 1896, where he taught at the Budapest Conservatory for the remainder of his life, serving for a time as cellist of the Hubay Quartet.

Popper wrote over eighty compositions, mostly for his own instrument, but also some songs and piano pieces. His cello compositions—four concertos, the three-cello Requiem, and many character pieces—are valued for their idiomatic writing and melodic warmth. He composed the Requiem in 1891 after the death of his publisher Daniel Rahter, and premiered the work in London with Jules Delsart and Edward Howell on November 25 that year. Beloved of cellists, the Requiem has held onto a special niche in the repertoire.

The work opens with two of the cellos playing in thirds; with the entrance of the third cello it becomes difficult to imagine a richer sound. The one-movement piece offers expressive solos for each of the cellists and even contains a little interlude featuring the piano (or orchestra). The harmonic language shows the late-nineteenth-century ease of modulating by means of chromatic alterations, deceptive resolutions, and borrowed chords. The piece travels through many keys, but on the most basic level it begins in the minor mode, moves to a remote major key (a major third away), and returns to the home key and opening theme, eventually settling into the major mode at the end. Particularly poignant passages occur with the lush suspensions in the remote key area and the chorale-like writing for the cellos just after the concluding turn to the major.

—©Jane Vial Jaffe