cello

The Rombouts cello was donated to the Musical Instrument Fund by a private individual in 1994. The cello has proven to be exceptionally well-suited to the Baroque repertoire and, for that reason, has been in the hands of musicians who have been particularly active in the performance of early music since the very beginning. The instrument has been played by Viola de Hoog and Pieter Wispelwey. Since 2009, Job ter Haar, cellist with the Van Swieten Society and Musica ad Rhenum, has been its current player. The Rombouts cello inspired Pieter Wispelwey in 2013 to record a new, much-talked-about performance of J.S. Bach’s cello suites on CD, in which the tuning is a half-step lower than in other Baroque performances. For that occasion, and the subsequent performances, Wispelwey was able to use the Rombouts. The cello can also be heard on the double CD released by the foundation in 2013. On that CD, 10 cellos from our collection are played by 12 different cellists. Among them is the Rombouts, which is played by both Wispelwey and Job ter Haar in movements from Bach’s cello suites.