Daniil Shafran

Daniil Shafran died in Moscow on February 7, 1997, aged 74. In September 1997, his widow, Svetlana Shafran, donated the Amati cello to the Glinka Museum.

Shafran's American debut was in 1960 in Carnegie Hall, at which concert he met Osip Shtrimer, the brother of his teacher. His British premiere was not till 1964, with concerts in Wigmore Hall and the Royal Festival Hall. He visited Japan several times, and toured Australia. By the time the Berlin Wall fell, Shafran's concert career was nearing its end.

The pianist Sviatoslav Richter stated:"a brief association with the cellist Daniil Shafran gave me little pleasure. He was a great cellist, with a distinctive tone, but whenever he played, you always had the impression that he was thinking only of the moment when he would have an interesting high note that he could hold on to and produce an attractive sound. He also suffered from nerves. I stopped performing with him in 1951 and he then joined up with Grigory Ginzburg... As a musician, if not a cellist, Rostropovitch was incomparably more interesting, an artist of far greater stature. He dwarfed him completely."

When Shafran graduated from the Conservatory in 1950, he was now 27 years old, and Rostropovich 23. For almost a decade, they stood out as the two outstanding young Russian cellists. "Both had already achieved an extraordinary level of artistry, yet they were temperamentally very different. Shafran's attention to detail made him pre-eminent in miniature forms: his poetic sensibility and the remarkable palette of tone colours he had at his disposal suit him to romantic and impressionistic repertoire". But in large forms, the musician's achievements were no less great.

In 1950, Shafran moved to Moscow, separating him from his family and his teacher on whom he had depended for so long - an event which caused him an artistic crisis. His early career was, in his own observation "rather hard. I made blunders, but this is only natural". Like so many prodigies, Shafran needed to develop into a mature artist, and his first wife and recital partner, Nina Musinian, greatly helped him in this respect, encouraging him to break with his past, and find the space to experiment.

His early concerts and recordings show his stature. His first recording, at age 14, was of the Rococo Variations. In 1946 he performed in Rumania with George Enescu at the piano. In 1954 he recorded Kabalevsky's First cello Concerto, under the baton of the composer. Kabalevsky was sufficiently impressed that he dedicated his Second Cello Concerto to Shafran, who gave the premiere and made the first recording in 1965. In 1956 he made a "legendary recording" of the Shostakovich Cello Sonata, with the composer at the piano. He observed that "No matter what I asked or suggested ... Shostakovich listened to every word ... and agreed to any new details ... even those that went against his original notation in the score", highlighting not only Shostakovich's character, but Shafran's confidence in his own musical vision. In 1962 he performed the Khachaturian Cello Concerto under the direction of the composer.

Musical activity in Leningrad was heavily impacted by the Second World War. Among many other activities in Russia, the All-Union competition was suspended for 7 years. Only in 1945 was it held again, when the war in Russia was over, and this time the winner was the young Mstislav Rostropovich. By 1949, "Shafran’s supremacy as the country's leading young cellist was now being challenged by Rostropovich, four years his junior." Shafran and Rostropovich both entered the 1949 competition at the Festival of Democratic Youth, Budapest, and they tied for the first prize. David Oistrakh, a jury member at the competition, wrote "both cellists are complete masters of cello sound. Their light virtuosity and elegant technique should be the envy of many violinists".

At the age of 14, Shafran entered the 1937 USSR All-Union Competition for Violinists and Cellists, for young musicians from all Soviet states. Although strictly he was below the qualifying age limit, he was allowed to enter as an unofficial contestant and carried off the first prize. His age, "filigree virtuosity and poetic appearance had caused something of a sensation" and Shafran achieved national prominence. Shafran was also awarded a magnificent Antonio Amati cello as part of the prize.

Daniil Borisovich Shafran (Russian: Даниил Борисович Шафран, January 13, 1923 – February 7, 1997) was a Soviet Russian cellist.

Daniil Shafran was born in Petrograd (later Leningrad, then Saint Petersburg) in 1923. Even from before his birth he was surrounded by music. His mother and father were music students when he was born. His father, Boris Shafran, went on to be principal cellist of the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra and his mother, Frida Moiseyevna, was a pianist. He recounted how, as his mother went into labour, his father was practicing passages from Haydn's D major Concerto in preparation for a recital, and was reluctant to go to the hospital until he had mastered a difficult technical passage.

When he was ten years old (other sources say eight), his father took him to Alexander Shtrimer (1888–1961), then professor at the Leningrad Conservatory, for lessons. Initially this was at the Conservatory Special Music School for Children, where Shtrimer also taught, and then at the Conservatory itself where Shafran was one of ten talented children chosen to attend. Shafran remained with Shtrimer for more than ten years (into his early twenties). Though his father took a more active interest in his progress than might be "correct in terms of pedagogical ethics", he took no other teacher, commenting that "my own experiences and my association with my musician colleagues were all a 'second teacher' to me".

The following year Shafran and Rostropovich again met in competition, at the Wihan contest in Prague – an event to commemorate the centenary of the Bohemian Cellist Hanus Wihan (1850–1920), himself a pupil of Karl Davydov. Shafran performed the Rococo Variations in the final round, (which by his own admission, he had not played successfully), and yet, again, Shafran and Rostropovich were the joint prize-winners.

The cello is described as dating from 1630. The exact dates of Antonio Amati (son of Andrea Amati, and the elder of the two Brothers Amati) are not known for certain, being variously reported between 1540 and 1607 and 1555 to 1640. Sources such as Cozio report that the entire span of Antonio Amati's working life was 1588–1628. It is by all accounts a magnificent instrument, though somewhat smaller than full size. It has been questioned whether "any Amati, no matter how fine, is sufficiently powerful for a solo cellist at the summit of his career. Baroque instruments of that period would not normally have the power of a later master." However, Shafran's recordings give no hint that the Amati has any lack of power. On the other hand, any Amati surviving into the present time has been rebuilt in the neck to allow for a higher bridge, and these alterations would give the instrument more carrying power and a brighter, more piercing sound than it had in the original baroque setup. The use of metal strings at high tension would also add to the brighter sound.