Schroeder Premieres

David Popper                   

Spinnlied, Op. 55, No. 1 (1884)

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In the spring of 1885, Alwin Schroeder became perhaps the third cellist to perform David Popper's Spinnlied, following the composer himself and the work's dedicatee, Julius Klengel. He played it often in European concerts, and continued to program the Spinnlied until the first years of the twentieth century, when the Vito Spanish dance seems to have replaced it as Schroeder's go-to Popper showpiece. It seems probable that Schroeder and Popper had met in Europe, but in any case Popper dedicated several works to "Alwin Schroeder of Boston," including the Adagio in A Major, Op. 65, No. 1 (1891), and the first book (Nos. 1-10) of the seminal High School of Violoncello Playing (1901). Stephen De'ak's assertion in his Popper biography that Schroeder played Popper's Im Walde suite appears to be incorrect.