His powerfully intuitive style brought him widespread fame as a soloist from 1947. Romantic in temperament, he specialized in the standard 19th-century repertoire, from Bach's solo suites to Elgar, Walton, and Kodaly. Tortelier came to prominence 1947 as soloist in Richard Strauss' Don Quixote in London under English conductor Thomas Beecham. From 1956 he taught at the Paris Conservatoire, where his pupils included English cellist Jacqueline du Pre.
