# A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Romberg

From volume 3 of the work.
​ROMBERG. One of those musical families of whom, from the Bachs downwards, so many are encountered in Germany. The founders were Anton and Heinrich, a pair of inseparable brothers, who dressed alike, and lived together in Bonn. They were still alive in 1792. Another Anton, a bassoon-player, born in Westphalia in 1745, lived at Dinklage (Duchy of Oldenburg), gave concerts at Hamburg, and died in 1812, living long enough to play a concerto for two bassoons with his youngest son Anton, born 1777. His eldest son, Bernhard, born Nov. 11, 1767, at Dinklage, is justly regarded as head of the school of German violoncellists. When only fourteen he attracted considerable attention in Paris during a visit there with his father; from 1790 to 1793 he was in the band of the Elector of Cologne at Bonn, at the same time with Ferdinand Ries, Reicha and the two Beethovens. During the French invasion he occupied himself in a professional tour in Italy, Spain, and Portugal, and was well received, especially in Madrid, where Ferdinand VII. accompanied him on the violin. His cousin Andreas went with him, and on their return through Vienna late in 1796, they gave a concert at which Beethoven played (Thayer, ii. 16). After his return Bernhard married Catherine Ramcke at Hamburg. From 1801 to 1803 he was a professor in the Paris Conservatoire, and we next find him in the King's band at Berlin. Spohr (Autob. i. 78) met him there at the end of 1 804, and played quartets with him. Perhaps the most remarkable fact he mentions is that after one of Beethoven's early quartets (op. 18) Romberg asked how Spohr could play 'such absurd stuff' (barockes Zeug). It is of a piece with the well-known anecdote of his tearing the copy of the first Rasoumowsky quartet from the stand and trampling on it.
The approach of the French forces in 1806 again drove Romberg on the world, and in 1807 he was travelling in South Russia, but returned to Berlin, and was Court-Capellmeister till 1817, when he retired into private life at Hamburg. In 1822 he went to Vienna, in 1825 to St. Petersburg and Moscow, and in 1839 toLondon, and Paris, where his Method for the cello (Berlin, Trautwein, 1840) was adopted by the Conservatoire. He died at Hamburg, August 13, 1841.
The great importance of B. Romberg both as composer and executant arises from the fact that he materially extended the capabilities of the violoncello. His celebrated concertos may be said to contain implicitly a complete theory of cello playing, and there are few passages known to modern players the type of which may not be found there. Probably no better knowledge of the fingerboard could be gained than by studying these concertos. Although they are now seldom played in public, being somewhat too old-fashioned to hit the taste of modern artists and audiences, they are yet of considerable merit as compositions, and contain passages of distinct grace and charm. There is probably no means now of learning at first hand what Romberg's own playing was like. But it may be gathered from the character of his compositions, that his tone was not so full and powerful as that of artists who confined themselves more to the lower register of the instrument, and to passages of less complication. As an indication that this view agrees with that which prevailed during his lifetime, we find him for instance spoken of as follows by a correspondent of the Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung for 1817, who had heard him play at Amsterdam:—'The visit of B. Romberg had long been eagerly looked for. The immense reputation which preceded him, caused his first concert to be crowded to excess. He played a concerto (die Reise auf den Bernhardsberg) and a capriccio on Swedish national airs. In regard to the perfection and taste of his performance, to the complete ease and lightness of his playing, our great expectations were far exceeded but not so in respect of tone this, especially in difficult passages, we found much weaker than the powerful tone of our own Rauppe, and indeed scarcely to compare with it.' At a second concert Romberg played his well-known Military Concerto, and the same view was reiterated.
Bernhard Romberg composed cello solos of various kinds; string quartets; PF. quartets; a funeral symphony for Queen Louise of Prussia; a concerto for 2 cellos (Breitkopf & Härtel), his last work; and operas—'Die wiedergefundene Statue,' words by Gozzi von Schwick (1790), and 'Der Schiffbruch' (1791, Bonn), 'Don Mendoce,' with his cousin Andreas (Paris), 'Alma,' 'Ulysses und Circe' (July 27, 1807), and 'Rittertreue,' 3 acts (Jan. 31, 1817, Berlin). His son Karl, also a cellist, born at St. Petersburg Jan. 17, 1811, played in the court-band there from 1832 to 1842, and afterwards lived at Vienna.
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