Piatigorsky, only 18 years old, traveled from USSR to Germany, studied with Becker and Klengel and found employment playing in a trio in
a Russian cafe in Berlin, frequented by Feuermann and Furtwangler, who hired him as principal cellist of the Berlin Philharmonic. He kept
that post until 1929 (now 26 years old), when he decided to pursue a career as a traveling concert artist. When Richard Strauss heard him,
he said, ‘I have finally heard my Don Quixote as I thought him to be.’ That same year he made his debuts with the Philadelphia Orchestra
under Stowkowski, and the New York Philharmonic, with Mengelberg. He loved the United States, and became a citizen in 1942 . The first
Russian cellist of the last century wordily acclaimed before Rostropovich.
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PRD 250 368
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