Wihan and virtuosity

By the time the thirty-three-year-old Wihan succeeded his teacher František Hegenbarth as professor of cello at the Prague Conservatory in 1888, he was already a seasoned performer. He had been appointed a professor at the Mozarteum in Salzburg at the tender age of eighteen and had played in orchestras in Berlin, Sonderhausen and Munich. During his time as principal cellist of the Court Orchestra at Munich, Wihan became acquainted with Richard Strauss, gave a number of performances of the young composer's early Romance for cello and orchestra, and took part in the première of his String Quartet in A major, op. 2, on 14 March 1881. Strauss, for his part, dedicated his Cello Sonata, op. 6, ‘Seinem lieben Freunde Herrn Hans Wihan’ and then promptly fell passionately in love with Wihan's wife, Dora.

The part he played in convincing Dvořák that the cello was a suitable concertante instrument and his prompting of the composer to write the Concerto has already been rehearsed. But his role did not stop with inspiration. Dvořák was certainly willing to take advice from cellists while composing the work. One such was the Dutch cellist Josef Hollmann (1852–1927) about whose reaction to the Concerto Dvořák wrote as follows: