Jonathan Harvey’s cello restored for today’s students

A cello which belonged to the influential British composer Jonathan Harvey during his student days in Cambridge has been restored so that it can be used by current undergraduates.

Harvey, who died in 2012 aged 73, was one of the leading composers of his generation, and received international acclaim for his music, which was often electronic, experimental and inspired by spiritual themes. His work remains in great demand; according to Faber Music some 150-200 performances of Harvey compositions are given or broadcast each year, and about 100 recordings of his music have been issued.

The cello was owned by Harvey when he was a student at St John’s College. He arrived in 1957, having won a scholarship to read Music. In those days, most Cambridge colleges were closed after a certain point at night, and legend has it that Harvey sometimes had to climb the walls to get back into St John’s with the cello strapped to his back, following a late-night rehearsal elsewhere in the city.

 

The cello was given to St John’s by his family, but will be made available to any student at Cambridge through the University’s Faculty of Music, which has a superb collection of historical and modern musical instruments that both undergraduate and postgraduate students are invited to borrow.

Margaret Faultless, Musician-in-Residence at St John’s College and Director of Performance at the Faculty of Music, said: “Jonathan Harvey had a long association with St John’s, eventually becoming an Honorary Fellow, and the thought of the cello being in College again was very exciting. It is a very significant gift but it would be sad if such an instrument ended up in a glass case purely as a museum object. Jonathan’s family are very keen that the instrument should be played.”

Considerable work needed to be carried out to return the cello to good playing condition. The restoration was funded through a one-off contribution by the College and was carried out by the Cambridge-based restorer and violin-maker, Jonathan Woolston. The work involved repairing various old cracks and scratches, re-varnishing when necessary, and then replacing the cello’s fingerboard, bridge, sound-post and endpin, and finally putting on a set of new strings.

It appears that the cello was used not only while Harvey was at St John’s, but for some time afterwards as well. When it arrived at the College, Faultless found a luggage label from IRCAM in Paris – the world-famous institute for avant-garde, electro-acoustic composition and research where Harvey wrote some of his most celebrated work.

Following its restoration, the cello is now being housed in the Faculty of Music on West Road, Cambridge. “It is very likely that this year it will be played by one of the very best current undergraduates in various University-wide projects,” Faultless added. “Even though there aren’t always cellists at St John’s in need of an instrument when they come to Cambridge, there are very good prospects for the cello to be used straight away.”