Julius Klengel was a German cellist

Cello

The cello is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin, viola, and double bass. Old forms of the instrument in the Baroque era are baryton and viol .A person who plays a cello is...

 who is most famous for his etude

Étude

An étude , is an instrumental musical composition, most commonly of considerable difficulty, usually designed to provide practice material for perfecting a particular technical skill. The tradition of writing études emerged in the early 19th century with the rapidly growing popularity of the piano...

s and solo pieces written for the instrument. He was the brother of Paul Klengel

Paul Klengel

Paul Klengel was a German violinist, violist, pianist, conductor, composer, editor and arranger. He was the brother of cellist Julius Klengel....

.

Born in Leipzig

Leipzig

Leipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...

, the son of a lawyer who was a fine amateur musician and a friend of Mendelssohn

Mendelssohn

Mendelson is a Polish/German Jewish family name, meaning "son of Mendel", Mendel being a Yiddish diminutive of the Hebrew given name Menahem, meaning "consoling" or "one who consoles".Mendelssohn is the surname of a number of people:...

, Klengel studied with Emil Hegar in his youth. After his 15th birthday, Klengel joined the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra

Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra

The Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra is one of the the oldest symphony orchestras in the world...

, where Hegar played first cello, and began touring Europe and Russia. Klengel also became a soloist at that point, frequently giving solo performances.

Klengel rose to become principal cellist of the orchestra, aged 22, in 1881; there he remained for over four decades: to celebrate his fifty years of service, Wilhelm Furtwängler

Wilhelm Furtwängler

Wilhelm Furtwängler was a German conductor and composer. He is widely considered to have been one of the greatest symphonic and operatic conductors of the 20th century. By the 1930s he had built a reputation as one of the leading conductors in Europe, and he was the leading conductor who remained...

 conducted a jubilee concert, in which with Klengel played the cello part in a double concerto he composed for the occasion.