By JEROME CARRINGTON

From the time of my student days, I had suspected that the Gevaert 1890 Breitkopf & Haertel edition of Haydn's Cello Concerto in D Major was not really the work of Gevaert, but of a cellist. There were several indications, principal among them being the inscription on the International edition:"Arranged and provided with cadenzas by F. A. Gevaert."The virtuosic writing in the three cadenzas could not have been done by Gevaert, who had no training as a cellist. The search for an answer became a project.

Pictured in the Zuidwestbrabants Museum in Halle, Belgium, are (left to right) Peter François (director of the museum's Servais Section), Ernest Vanderlinden, and Jerome Carrington. (Photo courtesy of Jerome Carrington)

Gevaert had been director of the Brussels Conservatory for 37 years, and as director he customarily conducted the public concerts of the Conservatory Orchestra. If he was not actually the author of the cadenzas, it seemed logical that they might have actually originated with a cellist who had been associated with Gevaert at the conservatory. An important clue would be any evidence of a performance of the concerto with Gevaert conducting.

The Brussels Conservatory Library looked through their old files and advised me that Joseph Servais, professor of violoncello at the conservatory, had performed the Haydn concerto in 1878, and again in 1881, with the Brussels Conservatory Orchestra. The conductor was F. A. Gevaert.

Perhaps the original arrangement of the concerto had been done by Joseph Servais, or by his more famous father, the great Belgian cellist Adrien-François Servais. But there seemed to be no published arrangement of the concerto preceding the 1890 Gevaert edition. If one existed, it would have to be in manuscript.

Unfortunately, neither the Brussels Conservatory Library nor the Royal Library of Belgium had a manuscript score. However, a recent book by Malou Haine, Franz Servais et Franz Liszt, provided a great deal of interesting historical data on the Servais family, including an expression of gratitude to the great-grandson of Adrien-François Servais, Mr. Ernest Vanderlinden, for providing access to the family archives.

I discovered that Mr. Vanderlinden lives in the small Belgian town of Berlaar, and the Belgian Consulate General in New York City very kindly provided his address. When Vanderlinden learned of the project, he invited me to his estate to examine the Servais family archives. It did not take long to find the answer: The archives include manuscripts of a cello part and a piano score of the Haydn Concerto; the piano score cover sheet was written by Adrien-François Servais and bears his signature. The Gevaert edition, published years later, is almost identical to these manuscripts. From the time the Brussels Conservatory Library was first contacted, the project had taken just under three years.

The manuscripts have now been reproduced and assembled in a volume (with explanatory comments) titled François Servais: Manuscripts of the Haydn D major Cello Concerto. A copy of the volume was recently presented to the library of The Juilliard School. Additional copies are now in the Brussels Conservatory Library, the Albert I Royal Library in Brussels, and the Brabant Museum in Halle, the birthplace of François Servais. It is anticipated that a detailed study of the manuscripts will be published shortly.

"Jerome Carrington has done extraordinary bibliographic sleuthing to uncover the true arranger of Haydn's Cello Concerto in D Major," said Jane Gottlieb, Juilliard's vice president for library and information resources. "We are honored to house the results of his work in Juilliard's library."

Jerome Carrington teaches cello in the Pre-College Division.