David Popper BiographyThe cellist David Popper was born in Prague in 1843, the son of the Prague Cantor. He studied the cello there under the Hamburg cellist Julius Goltermann, who had taken up an appointment at the Prague Conservatory in 1850. It was through Liszt’s then son-in-law, the pianist and conductor Hans von Bülow, that Popper was recommended in 1863 to a position as Chamber Virtuoso at the court of the Prince Friedrich Wilhelm Konstantin von Hohenzollern, who had had a new residence with a concert hall built at Löwenberg. The musical establishment there was disbanded, however, in 1869, on the death of the Prince. In 1867 Popper made his début in Vienna and the following year was appointed principal cellist at the Court Opera, serving also for a time as cellist in the Hellmesberger Quartet.
In 1872 he married Liszt’s pupil Sophie Menter, described by her teacher as his only legitimate daughter and the greatest woman pianist of the age, later to join the staff of the St Petersburg Conservatory. The following year they left Vienna to embark on a series of concert tours throughout Europe and in 1882 he undertook a tour of Spain and Portugal with the French violinist Emil Sauret. In 1896 Popper settled in Budapest to teach at the Conservatory that Liszt had established there. He served for a time as cellist in the quartet led by Jenö Hubay, the son of the first head of the Conservatory string department. In the same year Popper joined Hubay and Brahms in a performance in Budapest of Brahms’s Piano Trio in C minor. As a composer Popper is remembered for his cello compositions. These include four concertos and a number of salon pieces. His studies are familiar to many aspiring cellists. Popper died at Baden, near Vienna, in 1913.
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