alt=White man playing the cello, seen semi-profile|thumb|Tortelier in 1948
Paul Tortelier (21 March 1914 – 18 December 1990) was a French cellist and composer. After an outstanding student career at the Conservatoire de Paris he played in orchestras in France and the US before the Second World War. After the war he became a well-known soloist, playing in countries round the globe. He taught at music schools in France, Germany and China, and gave televised masterclasses in England. He was particularly associated with the solo part in Richard Strauss's Don Quixote, cello concertos by Elgar and others, and Bach's Cello Suites.
Life and work
Early years
Tortelier was born in Paris, the son of Joseph Tortelier and his wife Marguerite, née Boura. Joseph, who came from a family with Breton roots, was a menuisier-ébéniste – a carpenter-cabinet-maker – in Montmartre. Tortelier's mother had a particular love of the cello and he began to play the instrument when he was six. His general education was at the École Lucien Lafflessele, and from the age of nine he studied the cello with Louis Feuillard.
At the age of 12 Tortelier entered the Conservatoire de Paris, where he studied the cello with Gérard Hekking. While a student he earned an income in a trio playing accompaniments to silent films. He won the conservatoire's first prize when he was 16, playing the Elgar Cello Concerto, and then he studied harmony and composition under Jean Gallon. He made his professional début in 1931 at the age of 17, as soloist in Lalo's Cello Concerto with the Orchestre Lamoureux. and played the solo part in Richard Strauss's Don Quixote conducted by the composer.
In 1937 Tortelier accepted an invitation from Serge Koussevitzky to join the Boston Symphony Orchestra. He remained until the 1939–40 season. He was in Paris during the Second World War, teaching at the Conservatoire. He had a short-lived marriage to Madeleine Gaston, which ended in divorce in 1944. Within days Tortelier gave a recital with Gerald Moore at the Wigmore Hall and recorded the Strauss piece with Beecham and the RPO. He added:
He later said, "I have played for Toscanini and Karajan, but I never felt with any conductor what I felt with Casals". More than any other cellist it was Casals who influenced him the most. Tortelier said that there was a spiritual quality in the older man's playing: "one never thought that Casals was playing the cello; he was playing music". He also absorbed Casals's approach to intonation, subtly sharpening or flattening the pitch of notes for the best harmonic effect. During this period he made his début as a conductor, with the Israel Philharmonic.
Tortelier's international career continued into his seventies. At a concert to mark his 75th birthday he was joined by colleagues including his friend Mstislav Rostropovich, who conducted the Saint-Saëns A-minor concerto with Tortelier as soloist and later in the concert joined him as fellow soloist in a composition of Tortelier's own, the "Valse, alla Maud".
Tortelier died of a heart attack on 18 December 1990 at the age of 76 in the domaine of Villarceaux, Yvelines, near Paris.
Composer, teacher and innovator
thumb|Tortelier by the [[Studio Harcourt, 1948|alt= clean-shaven, slim white man with aquiline features, seen profile playing the cello]]
Tortelier thought it important for executant musicians to write music, because he felt it enabled him to approach even repertory works as, to some extent, an act of re-creation: