David Soyer, Cellist, Is Dead at 87

By DANIEL J. WAKIN
Published: February 26, 2010

David Soyer, the founding cellist of the Guarneri String Quartet and a link to the legendary cellists Pablo Casals and Emanuel Feuermann, died on Thursday at his home in Manhattan. He was 87.

 
His death came a day after his birthday, his son Daniel said.
Mr. Soyer was the elder statesman when he and three other men about a dozen years younger — the violinists Arnold Steinhardt and John Dalley and the violist Michael Tree — formed a quartet at the Marlboro Music Festival in Vermont in 1964.

For the next 37 years they played together, a remarkable record of longevity for a string quartet, in which tensions over music making, money and personal differences often cause breakups. The Guarneri became one of the world’s best-known quartets, setting a standard in quartetistry with seamless, warm and impassioned playing and a unanimity that did not efface individual personalities. Mr. Soyer retired in 2001, making a handoff to his student Peter Wiley in a concert at Carnegie Hall. In the first half, Mr. Soyer played in Beethoven’s Quartet No. 13 in B flat (Op. 130), with its monumental Grosse Fuge finale. For the second half, Mr. Wiley sat next to his former teacher for Schubert’s String Quintet in C. Mr. Soyer, weary of touring, quoted Claus Adam on Mr. Adam’s leaving the Juilliard Quartet as cellist: “I don’t want to have a heart attack at a Holiday Inn after having had dinner at a Howard Johnson’s.”

Last May Mr. Soyer reappeared for another Schubert quintet performance at the Guarneri’s last concert in New York City, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The ensemble retired as a whole, playing its final concerts this season. The Guarneri traveled the world, playing 100 concerts a year, and its success drew the attention of writers and filmmakers. At least three books have been written about it, including one by Mr. Steinhardt. It was the subject of a well-received documentary in 1989, “High Fidelity: The Adventures of the Guarneri String Quartet.”

Mr. Soyer had a big, romantic sound. In the 1986 book “The Art of Quartet Playing: The Guarneri String Quartet in Conversation With David Blum,” Mr. Soyer described the position of a cello in a string quartet as both base and bass. “In the role of base the cellist has to assure the foundation of the ensemble,” he said. “There must be sufficient sense of presence and substance of sound to provide a point of stability. In the role of bass the cellist must give life to the harmonic structure.” The cello, he added, must also be the “rhythmic monitor” of a quartet by “setting the pulse, articulating points of rhythmic stress, conveying a sense of rhythmic direction.”

In a telephone interview Friday, Mr. Dalley described Mr. Soyer as the “quintessential quartet cellist.” One of his great strengths, he said, was a powerful presence. “What you want is a strong, assertive character in the bass.” Besides his son Daniel, of Needham, Mass., Mr. Soyer, who also lived in Halifax, Vt., is survived by his wife, Janet, a retired harpist; another son, Jeffrey, of Fairlee, Vt.; a sister, Dolores Soyer, of New York; and two granddaughters.

David Soyer was born on Feb. 24, 1923, in Philadelphia to nonmusical parents and took up the cello at the relatively late age of 11. His first teacher was Emmet Sargeant, a member of the Philadelphia Orchestra; he went on to study briefly with Joseph Emonts, a member of the New York Philharmonic. His major teacher was Diran Alexanian, followed by lessons with Feuermann and Casals. In the Blum book, Mr. Soyer recalled playing the euphonium in a Navy band in Washington that included Bernard Greenhouse, another cellist in a famed chamber ensemble, the Beaux Arts Trio. Mr. Soyer made his debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1942, under Eugene Ormandy, performing “Schelomo” by Bloch.

In 1961 Rudolph Serkin invited him to the remarkable chamber music gathering in Vermont that he helped found at Marlboro College. Mr. Soyer had known Mr. Dalley from freelancing in New York. Mr. Dalley, Mr. Steinhardt and Mr. Tree knew one another from the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. All four played chamber music with Serkin. Mr. Soyer returned to the festival to perform chamber music nearly every summer for the last 30 years, said Frank Salomon, the music manager and Marlboro’s co-administrator.

He was also a teacher, giving lessons until two weeks ago at his apartment, said his son Daniel. He was on the faculties of Curtis, the Juilliard School and the Manhattan School of Music. Mr. Soyer would often recall the tough, almost abusive styles of some of his teachers, and joke about their influence. “My students cried a lot, but didn’t learn,” he once said. “They just cried. So I lightened up, and we were all happier.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/27/arts/music/27soyer.html?partner=rss&emc=rss