Guilhermina Suggia

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Guilhermina Augusta Xavier de Medin Suggia

Guilhermina Suggia , completely Guilhermina Augusta Xavier de Medim Suggia Carteado Mena (born June 27, 1885 in Porto ; † July 30, 1950 ) was a Portuguese cellist and one of the first women to make a professional career with this instrument.

youth

Guilhermina Suggia's musical talent was encouraged early on by her father, Augusto Jorge de Menim Suggia, who was a former cellist at the Lisbon Conservatory . At the age of five she began to play on a 3/4 cello that her father had made in Paris . She made her first public appearance at the piano with her sister Virginia, who was three years her senior, at the age of 7 in 1892 at the Matosinhos Club in Porto. Between 1892 and 1895 the sisters had numerous appearances together and became known in the salons of Porto. In May 1896 she made her debut at the Gil Vicente Theater with Haydn's Andante with Variations in a string quartet that accompanied her sister.

In 1898 Suggia met the already well-known cellist Pau Casals , with whom her father had her auditioned and who gave her weekly lessons for several months.

Studied in Leipzig

From 1901 Guilhermina and Virginia were members of the Moreira de Sá quartet and played at the Lisbon Conservatory. Their success was so great that they were invited to a performance for the Portuguese royal couple in the Palácio das Necessidades . Queen Amélie promised Guilhermina to support her in her desire to study abroad. Thanks to this support, the young artist was able to study with Julius Klengel for 16 months at the Leipzig Conservatory with a state scholarship , where she played with the Gewandhaus Orchestra at the age of 18 .

Relationship with Pau Casals

From 1907 to 1913 Guilhermina Suggia lived with Pau Casals in the Villa Molitor in Paris. Although there are no records of a marriage, she is listed on concert lists of the time as Guilhermina Suggia-Casals or Guilhermina Casals. Her style was significantly influenced by Casals' influence during this time, but the relationship also brought her into exchange with some of the most famous musicians of the time, Fritz Kreisler , George Enescu and Eugène Ysaÿe were regular visitors to Villa Molitor. However, the relationship between Suggia and Casals was subject to increasing tensions, as Suggia was unwilling to stand permanently in the shadow of the famous Casals.

Musical development

After the end of the relationship with Casals, Guilhermina Suggia moved to London in 1914 , where she was initially best known as "Mrs. Casals", but in the next few years she became a celebrity in classical music. In 1919 she became engaged to the newspaper owner Edward Hudson, who presented her with a Stradivari cello from 1717, which today bears her name. Even after the engagement was broken, Suggia kept this instrument. The famous portrait " Madame Suggia " by Sir August John shows Guilhermina Suggia with her cello. The portrait was started on behalf of Hudson. When the assignment ended, John continued painting anyway. He started over twice, each time with a dress of a different color, a larger canvas, and a pose that shows her profile. It is considered one of its best. In March 1923 it was exhibited in the Alpine Club. William P. Clyde Jr., owner of the Clyde Steamship Company, had flown in from Monte Carlo and bought the painting for $ 50,000. England was upset that it was now on display in America. In 1925, however, the art dealer Joseph Duveen , who had a branch in New York, managed to persuade Clyde to sell him the picture. Duveen gave it to the Tate Gallery . The photographers Alvin Langdon Colburn and Bertram Park also took numerous well-known pictures of Suggia and her instrument.

In the 1920s, Suggia was best known for her performances of concerts by Joseph Haydn, Antonín Dvořák , Saint-Saëns and Schumann , as well as for her interpretation of the Bach Suites . In the 1930s she expanded her repertoire to include pieces by Edward Elgar , Sergei Wassiljewitsch Rachmaninow , Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy and César Franck . In 1947 she made personal premieres ( Claude Debussy's Cello Sonata).

For decades, Guilhermina Suggia refused to perform in the USA because she did not want to expose her cellos to the danger of long transport. A tour Suggias finally planned there for 1950 had to be canceled due to the poor health of the artist. When an inoperable cancer was diagnosed, the English public was deeply moved and the young Queen Elizabeth II sent congratulations and a bouquet of flowers.

Guilhermina Suggia had her last appearance in her home country Portugal, in Aveiro on May 31, 1950. She died on the night of July 30, 1950 in her home in Porto of complications from cancer.

Awards and afterlife

In 1923 the Portuguese government appointed her a Lady of the Ordem Militar de Sant'Iago da Espada (DamSE) for her extraordinary services , an award that was rarely given to women. In 1937 she was even appointed commander of the order. In 1938 she was awarded the Golden Medal of the City of Porto. The Porto Conservatory awards the Guilhermina Suggia Prize annually to outstanding young cellists. In England, the British Arts Council runs the Suggia Foundation, which awards grants to talented cellists.

literature

  • Anita Mercier: Guilhermina Suggia: Cellist . Ashgate, 2008, ISBN 0-7546-6169-5 .
  • Fátima Pombo: Guilhermina Suggia: A Sonata de Semper . Edições Afrontamento / Câmara Municipal de Matosinhos, 1996, ISBN 978-972-36-0418-4 .
  • Fátima Pombo: Guilhermina Suggia, ou, O violoncelo luxurious . Fundação Eng. António de Almeida, 1993.
  • Hubert Whelbourn: Standard Book of Celebrated Musicians Past and Present . Read Books, 2007, ISBN 1-4067-7135-X , p. 269 ( limited preview in Google Book Search).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Madame Suggia by Augustus John in the Tate Gallery
  2. ↑ Joseph Duveen, Baron Duveen of Millbank
  3. ↑ George Eastman House Photo Archive ( Memento of the original from June 20, 2002 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.geh.org
  4. ^ National Portrait Gallery

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Suggia, Guilhermina
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Suggia, Guilhermina Xavier de Medim (full name); Mena, Guilhermina (married name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Portuguese cellist
DATE OF BIRTH June 27, 1885
PLACE OF BIRTH postage
DATE OF DEATH July 30, 1950
Place of death postage