The Australian cellist Lauri Kennedy (cousin to violinist Daisy Kennedy and grandfather of Nigel Kennedy) studied with Herbert Walenn at London’s Royal College of Music and later with Paul Brummer in Vienna. After being noticed by the famous soprano Nellie Melba, he was invited by Arturo Toscanini to become principal cellist of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, later moving to London to take up a similar post with the newly-formed BBC Symphony Orchestra under Adrian Boult. In America he played chamber music with Arthur Rubinstein and Jascha Heifetz, and in London was a member of the Chamber Music Players with Albert Sammons, Lionel Tertis and William Murdoch, also playing with the Kreisler Quartet. Kennedy recorded with John McCormack, Fritz Kreisler and William Primrose, and gave first performances both of Edgar Bainton’s Cello Sonata and (after its rejection by both Suggia and Salmond) Frank Bridge’s Oration.
A significant tour of Australia in 1938 led to Kennedy’s return to America as principal cellist of the NBC Symphony Orchestra, before a permanent return to Australia where he purchased a hotel and ran music summer schools with his wife (who also taught Caruso’s children).
On record, Kennedy is in many ways typical of his time. There is still a tendency to use portamento over larger leaps (as in the 1920 Popper and 1928 Dvořák recordings) but this is faster and lighter than a generation before, and the continuous vibrato—for the most part relatively fast and intense—is typical of many players adopting the device as part of a newer tonal aesthetic. The performances here with his wife Dorothy are beautifully balanced miniatures, the Popper especially revealing a fleet technique with impressive accuracy in virtuosic passagework. The 1935 Kreisler Quartet recording is a fascinating document, not least because its muscular writing is strongly suggestive of late-nineteenth-century French Romanticism. Kennedy here aligns very well with his illustrious colleagues and, whilst Kreisler’s sparkling tone dominates much of the recording, this performance testifies to Kennedy’s fine chamber-music skills and his many collaborations in this genre.
© Naxos Rights International Ltd. — David Milsom (A–Z of String Players, Naxos 8.558081-84)