In Memoriam - Lynn Harrell (1944-2020)

No. 347 of the ongoing ITYWLTMT series of audio montages can be found in our archives at https://archive.org/details/pcast347

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Our second of two new montages this month, in our “In November we remember” series, showcases performances by cellist Lynn Harrell, who passed away on April 27.

According to his obituary in the Washington Poet, Mr. Harrell was convinced that the cello had more direct appeal to an audience than any other instrument, and compared it to the human voice. “The cello covers all vocal ranges — soprano, alto, tenor and bass,” he told the New York Times in 1982. “Besides that, there is the visual appeal.”

Lynn Morris Harrell was born in 1944 to a musical family. His mother, Marjorie Fulton Harrell, was a violinist, and his father, Mack Harrell, was a baritone who sang for many years with the Metropolitan Opera. Later, the family moved to Dallas, where his father taught at Southern Methodist University and his mother gave private lessons. Most summers were spent in Colorado, where Mack Harrell was one of the founders and then the second director of the Aspen Music Festival and School. He started on piano at 8 and was an unenthusiastic student. But when his parents presented an evening of chamber music at the family home, he became fascinated by the cello and became a pupil of Lev Aronson, principal cellist of the Dallas Symphony. The fiercely exacting George Szell hired him for the Cleveland Orchestra’s cello section while Mr. Harrell was still a teenager and made him principal cellist at 20. He went on play solo recitals, chamber music concerts and solo appearances with orchestra.

His complete discography spans more than two dozen other recordings, and his repertoire spanned from Bach to a new concerto by composer Augusta Read Thomas. The three works I chose for today’s podcast are emblematic of his broad repertoire; he recorded both of Victor Herbert’s cello concerti, and his performance of the Schumann cello concerto is a go-to reference. To complete the programme, I opted for a quaint duo for cello and violin by Zoltan Kodaly.

I think you will love this music too.