Beschreibung:

AN IMPORTANT ITALIAN VIOLONCELLO by Giovanni Battista Guadagnini labelled Jo. Bapt. Guadagnini/Cremonensis alumnus/Antonii Stradivari/fecit Taurini 1780; the two-piece back of medium curl, the ribs similar, the scroll of faint small figure, the table of open grain, the varnish of a golden orange colour, the length of back 28 1/16in. (71.2cm.) Karl Yul'yevich Davidov (1838-1889) was one of the great virtuoso 'cellists of the nineteenth century. He left Russia for Germany in 1858 where he became principal with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra and then professor at the Conservatory. He returned to russia in 1862, initially as professor and was made director of the St. Petersburg Conservatory in 1876. Throughout his life, he performed extensively in Western Europe and Russia. Part one of his Violoncell-Schule was written in Moscow in 1888 and published the same year in Leipzig. He died before the work was completed. This instrument was owned subsequently by Joseph Haft, then Kurt Reher, principal 'cellist of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Reher sold the 'cello to his brother-in-law, Joseph di Tullio (1907-1990) in 1972. Di Tullio played with the Los Angeles Philharmonic for fifteen years and was a well-known performer and teacher on the West Coast. He free-lanced regularly in the recording, television and film industries, and often worked with Reher at the Twentieth Century Fox Studio. As principal 'cellist of the Percy Faith Orchestra, he often toured Japan. He served, among others, on the faculty of UCLA.