Huit Grandes Etudes pour le Violoncelle, Op. 44

Friedrich August Kummer (1797—1879) produced less pedagogical material compared to his two great predecessors, Dotzauer and Romberg, but what survived to this day is of the greatest quality. The Eight Grand Studies for Cello, with optional accompaniment of a second Cello, Op. 44, were composed when Kummer was a cellist at the Dresden Court Opera (1817—64).

All of them use the thumb in some way, while two are specifically dedicated to the thumb position. No. 7, in C minor, uses the melody from Rossini’s aria “Dal tuo stellato soglio” from the opera Mosé in Egitto, showing how great an influence his work as an opera cellist had on him.

This edition comes in two versions, Original & Collectors’ Edition.

The Original version contains, for the first time since their composition, the Urtext score and parts, and is available for digital download right now and will be printed in Q1 2023.

The Collectors’ Edition contains, in digital download, the Urtext score and parts, the score and parts of the revision by the legendary Milan Conservatory professor Giuseppe Magrini, and the cello part of the revision by the Paris Conservatory professor Jules Loeb (André Navarra’s teacher).