1815—Leipzig, Germany

In April, trombonist Friedrich August Belcke appears as soloist with Gewandhaus Orchestra, marking the first solo performance by a trombonist at the Gewandhaus and the beginning of Belcke’s 30-year solo career. Belcke performs a new work by Carl Heinrich Meyer called Potpourri mit obligatur Bassposaune (now lost). A review of the performance in the Allgemeine musikalischeZeitung says, “Finally, Mr. Belcke, a young man of talent and considerable skill, astonished us with a potpourri for trombone with orchestral accompaniment, in a style which was for us completely new. The work [by] Mr. Meyer, likewise (from) Leipzig, was not only written with a complete knowledge of the instrument and skilled exploitation of all its principal qualities, but was also very well written as a piece of music in general; and, in spite of its great difficulty, the soloist played it with a precision, clarity and neatness—yes, even with a fine cantilena—such as we have never heard before from a trombonist” (Lewis, Gewandhaus).