Schroeder Premieres

Frederic Chopin                

Lento, Op. 25, No. 7, arranged for cello and strings

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Before he took up the cello, the teenage Alwin Schroeder was the violist of the Schroeder Brothers string quartet. From 1868 to 1871, he and his three older brothers were employed by the Dowager Duchess of Alhalt-Bernburg, performing Quartett-Soirees at her palace in Ballenstedt and making concert tours through Germany. Their repertoire consisted of quartets by Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Mendelssohn, and Schumann, and they played on some of the same Berlin and Hamburg concert series as the newly-founded Joachim Quartet. Among the shorter pieces on Schroeder Brothers concerts was Franchomme's arrangement of the Chopin "cello" etude, with Alwin's brother Carl playing the cello solo. A quarter century after Alwin had surprised Carl with his own cello-playing ability and had switched to the larger instrument, the Chopin Lento was 

becoming such a staple among Alwin Schroeder's solo selections on Kneisel Quartet concerts throughout the US that when local cellists took up the piece, they included "as played by Alwin Schroeder" in their press materials. The Boston Music Co. later published his version in the collection, Alwin Schroeder's Concert Repertoire.