R. Larry Todd is featured in BBC Radio 3's "Cristiani and Her Cello" with Kate Kennedy

A cello virtuoso, there is relatively little known about the Parisian-born Cristiani today. Felix Mendelssohn dedicated his famous Song Without Words for cello and piano to her, and it is this piece that Kennedy and Professor Todd discuss. Professor Todd also introduces Kennedy to another piece, still unpublished, which was dedicated to Cristiani, and is heard for the first time in this radio feature.

Listen to "Cristiani and Her Cello"


R. Larry Todd is Arts & Sciences Professor of Music and former chair of the Music Department at Duke University. Among his books are Mendelssohn: A Life in Music (Oxford Univ. Press), named Best Biography of 2003 by the Association of American Publishers. His biography of Fanny Hensel, Fanny Hensel, the Other Mendelssohn (OUP), was awarded the Nicholas Slonimsky Prize from ASCAP. Todd serves as General Editor of the Master Musician Series for Oxford University Press and the Routledge Studies in Musical Genres. His 2018 Beethoven’s Cello: Five Revolutionary Sonatas and Their World, co-authored with Marc Moskovitz, was awarded the CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title Award from the American Library Association.