Composer
Biography
Born in Prague in 1843 into a cantor's household, David Popper took to the instrument early enough to be appointed Kammervirtuose at nineteen, thanking his patron with the Six Character Pieces. Hans von Bülow put concerts his way, and within a decade Popper was playing with Clara Schumann and with Brahms and sitting as principal cello of the Vienna Court Opera. From 1886 he taught at the Liszt Academy in Budapest. He left four cello concertos, a Requiem for three cellos and short pieces including the Hungarian Rhapsody. He also wrote the High School of Cello Playing, Op. 73: forty studies on bowing, shifting, double stops, thumb position and sheer endurance. In Budapest he played chamber music with Jenő Hubay. He died in 1913. He counted Wagner among his acquaintances and held the Budapest professorship to the end of his life.