William Henry Squire - Playing Career

Playing Career

Squire made his debut at a chamber music concert given by Albéniz at St. James's Hall in London on 12 Feb 1891. He was associated with the concerts of British chamber music which were given at the Queen's Hall, London in 1894. On 20 April 1895 he appeared at the Crystal Palace in London to play the Saint-Saëns cello concerto in A. He was appointed principal cello at the Royal Italian Opera (now the Royal Opera House Covent Garden) between 1894 and 1899. As a prominent member of the original Queen's Hall Orchestra from 1897 to 1901 he played in some of the earliest Henry Wood Promenade Concerts; there he performed in some of his own compositions, for example Serenade in 1897 and pieces by other composers, for example the Andante from the cello concerto in D major Op. 45 No. 2 by Molique in 1898. Henry Wood said, of Squire:

Squire was, of course, a very young man in those days, but his tone and technique were superb. He was a great acquisition to the orchestra and a favourite with audiences.

Squire also performed quartets with other members of the Queen's Hall Orchestra in the Queen's Small Hall. It was in 1898, while at the Queen's Hall, that Fauré, impressed with Squire's mastery of French music dedicated his Sicilienne Op. 78 for cello and piano to him. Squire also played in the London Symphony Orchestra. In 1899 he performed the Schubert Quintet in an ensemble led by the violinist Joseph Joachim. Squire played at several other London venues including the London Ballad Concerts which were held at the Royal Albert Hall, Hampstead Popular Concerts, the National Sunday League Concerts held at the London Palladium and at the Aeolian Hall.

For nine successive years in the early 20th century Squire made frequent concert tours of the provinces as a soloist with the contralto singer Clara Butt and her husband, the baritone Robert Kennerly Rumford. During this same period Squire was also associated with the music festivals held at Leeds and Norwich, and Hereford, Worcester and Gloucester (the Three Choirs Festival). He played in trios with William Murdoch (piano) and Albert Sammons (violin) - the "London Chamber Music Players", and Frederick Sewell (piano) and Johannes Wolff (violin).

His performance schedule remained busy until the late 1920s by which time the limited number of prestigious concert dates became shared between a growing number of cellists. His last appearance in a public concert was at Exeter Cathedral in 1941. He also appeared before royalty on many occasions.

Squire's style of playing has been described as "of the old school" as he was taught by Piatti. In a comparison with the cellist Pablo Casals of the number of portamenti used in the first twenty-six bars of the slow movement of the Elgar cello concerto, Squire has been described as using twenty-three portamenti (in his 1930 recording) compared to only ten used by Casals (recorded in 1945). In addition, Squire's portamenti have been described as "slow and unsoftened by diminuendi" (sic); Casals's as "extremely varied and subtle".

Squire is said to have played a cello by Bergonzi, but there is an alternative view that he played a Matteo Goffriller.