Heinrich Grünfeld

Heinrich Grünfeld (21 April 1855 – 26 August 1931) was a Czech-Austrian cellist, music educator and composer. He published his autobiography, ‘In Dur und Moll’ in 1923, an historically important source for Brahms, Joachim, and Richard Strauss. He is the brother of pianist and composer Alfred Grünfeld. Early life Heinrich Grünfeld was born on 21 April 1855 into an affluent Jewish family in Prague, the son of merchant Moritz Grünfeld (1817, Kolín – 1882, Vienna) and his wife Regina, née Pick (1826, Dobruška – 1881, Vienna). After the discovery of his elder brother Alfred’s musical talent, the family home became a key part of Prague’s music scene. Grünfeld thus became acquainted with many of the prominent Czech musicians of the time, including Bedřich Smetana, Antonín Dvořák and David Popper, with the latter of whom he became close friends. Popper later dedicated two Spanish dances to Grünfeld. Grünfeld studied the cello from the age of fourteen, first with Alois Neruda and then with Frantisek Hegenbarth at the Prague Conservatory, graduating in 1873, where he was a contemporary of Hanuš Wihan, Karel Halíř, Otakar Ševčík and Florián Zajíc. Three of Grünfeld’s four brothers also went o