Heinrich Grünfeld

Heinrich Grünfeld (21 April 1855, Prague – 26 August 1931, Berlin) was a Bohemian-Austrian violoncellist; a brother of Alfred Grünfeld.

Grünfeld was born intoan affluent family Jewish family, the fourth of ten children of the merchant Moses Grünfeld (*1817 Kolín nad Labem) and his wife Regina (*1826), née Pick, in Prague - New Town. He was educated at the Prague Conservatory. In 1876 he went to Berlin and for eight years taught at the Neue Akademie der Tonkunst. In conjunction with Xaver Scharwenka and Gustav Hollaender (later with Émile Sauret, Max Pauer, and Florian Zajic), he arranged trio soirées which became very popular. In 1886 Grünfeld was appointed court violoncellist to King William of Prussia.

Grünfeld can be heard in an arrangement of Mendelssohn's Song Without Words op. 53, no. 2, together with violinist Alfred Wittenberg and pianist Moritz Mayer-Mahr, on acoustic Parlophon P 1736-I. These three artists toured widely as members of an established piano trio.