Pablo Casals | |
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.jpg) Casalsc. 1917 | |
| Born | Pau Casals i Defilló (1876-12-29)29 December 1876 El Vendrell, Tarragona, Spain |
| Died | 22 October 1973(1973-10-22) (aged 96) |
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| Organizations | |
| Awards | Presidential Medal of Freedom (1963),United Nations Peace Medal (1971),Gold Medal of the Generalitat of Catalonia (1979)[1] |
Pau Casals i Defilló[2][3] (Catalan:[ˈpawkəˈzalziðəfiˈʎo]; 29 December 1876 – 22 October 1973), also known in English asPablo Casals,[4][5][6][7] was aCatalan andPuerto Rican cellist, composer, and conductor, born in Spain. He made many recordings throughout his career of solo, chamber, and orchestral music, including some as conductor, but he is perhaps best remembered for the recordings he made of theCello Suites byBach. He was awarded thePresidential Medal of Freedom in 1963 byPresident John F. Kennedy (though the ceremony was presided over byLyndon B. Johnson).
Casals was born inEl Vendrell,Catalonia, Spain. His father, Carles Casals i Ribes, was a parishorganist andchoirmaster. He gave Casals instruction in piano, songwriting, violin, and organ. He was also a very strict disciplinarian. When Casals was young, his father would pull the piano out from the wall and have him and his brother, Artur, stand behind it and name the notes and the scales that his father was playing. At the age of four, Casals could play the violin, piano and flute; at the age of six he played the violin well enough to perform a solo in public. His first encounter with a cello-like instrument was from witnessing a local travellingCatalan musician, who played a cello-strung broom handle. Upon request, his father built him a crude cello, using agourd as a sound-box. When Casals was 11 years old, he first heard the real cello performed by a group of traveling musicians, and decided to dedicate himself to the instrument.[citation needed]
His mother,Doña Pilar Defilló de Casals, was born inMayagüez, Puerto Rico, to parents who wereCatalan immigrants in Puerto Rico.[8][9] In 1888, she took her son to Barcelona, where he was enrolled in the Escola Municipal de Música.[8] There he studied cello, theory, and piano. In 1890, when he was 13, he found a tattered copy of Bach's six cello suites in a second-hand music store in Barcelona. He spent the next 13 years practicing them every day before he would perform them in public for the first time.[10] Casals would later make his own version of the six suites.[11] He made prodigious progress as a cellist; on 23 February 1891 he gave a solo recital in Barcelona at the age of fourteen. He graduated from theEscola with honours five years later.
In 1893, Spanish composerIsaac Albéniz heard him playing in a trio in a café and gave him a letter of introduction to the CountGuillermo Morphy, the private secretary toMaría Cristina, the Queen Regent of Spain. Casals was asked to play at informal concerts in the palace, and was granted a royal stipend to study composition at theMadrid Royal Conservatory in Madrid withVíctor Mirecki. He also played in the newly organised Quartet Society.
In 1895, he traveled to Paris, where, having lost his stipend[why?], he earned a living by playing second cello in the theatre orchestra of theFolies Marigny. In 1896, he returned to Spain and received an appointment to the faculty of the Escola Municipal de Música in Barcelona. He was also appointed principal cellist in the orchestra of Barcelona's opera house, theLiceu. In 1897, he appeared as soloist with theMadrid Symphony Orchestra, and was awarded theOrder of Carlos III from the Queen.[citation needed]
In 1899, Casals played atThe Crystal Palace in London, and later forQueen Victoria atOsborne House, her summer residence, accompanied byErnest Walker. On 12 November, and 17 December 1899, he appeared as a soloist at the Lamoureux Concerts in Paris, to great public and critical acclaim. He toured Spain and the Netherlands with the pianistHarold Bauer from 1900 to 1901; in 1901/02, he made his first tour of the United States; and in 1903 toured South America.
On 15 January 1904, Casals was invited to play at theWhite House for PresidentTheodore Roosevelt. On 9 March of that year, he made his debut atCarnegie Hall in New York, playingRichard Strauss'sDon Quixote under the baton of the composer. In 1906, he became associated with the talented youngPortuguese cellistGuilhermina Suggia,[12] who studied with him and began to appear in concerts as Mme. P. Casals-Suggia, although they were not legally married. Their relationship ended in 1912.
The New York Times of 9 April 1911 announced that Casals would perform at the London Musical Festival to be held at the Queen's Hall on the second day of the Festival (23 May). The piece chosen wasHaydn's Cello Concerto in D and Casals would later joinFritz Kreisler forBrahms'sDouble Concerto for Violin and Cello.[6]
In 1914, Casals married the American socialite and singerSusan Metcalfe; they were separated in 1928, but did not divorce until 1957.
Although Casals made his first recordings in 1915 (a series forColumbia), he would not release another recording until 1926 (on theVictor label).[7]
Back in Paris, Casals organized a trio with the pianistAlfred Cortot and the violinistJacques Thibaud; they played concerts from 1906 to 1933, and made recordings from 1926 to 1929.[13] Casals also became interested in conducting, and in 1919 he organized, in Barcelona, thePau Casals Orchestra and led its first concert on 13 October 1920. With the outbreak of theSpanish Civil War in 1936, the Orquestra Pau Casals ceased its activities.
Casals was an ardent supporter of theSpanish Republican government, and after its defeat vowed not to return to Spain until democracy was restored. Casals performed at the Gran Teatre del Liceu on 19 October 1938, possibly his last performance in Spain before his exile.[14]
In the last weeks of 1936, he stayed inPrades,[15] a small village in France near the Spanish border, where Casals would settle in 1939,[16] inPyrénées-Orientales, an historically Catalan region. Between 1939 and 1942 he made sporadic appearances as a cellist in the unoccupied zone of southern France and inSwitzerland. He was mocked by the Francoist press, which wrote articles deriding him as "a donkey", and was fined one million pesetas for his political views.[17] So fierce was his opposition toFrancoist Spain that he refused to appear in countries that recognized the Spanish government. He made a notable exception when he took part in a concert ofchamber music in theWhite House on 13 November 1961, at the invitation ofPresidentJohn F. Kennedy, whom he admired. On 6 December 1963, Casals was awarded the U.S.Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Throughout most of his professional career, he played on a cello that was labeled and attributed to "Carlo Tononi ... 1733" but after he had been playing it for 50 years it was discovered to have been created by the VenetianluthierMatteo Goffriller around 1700. Casals acquired it in 1913.[18] He also played another cello by Goffriller dated 1710, and a Tononi from 1730.
In 1950, he resumed his career as conductor and cellist at the Prades Festival inConflent, organized in commemoration of the bicentenary of the death ofJohann Sebastian Bach; Casals agreed to participate on condition that all proceeds were to go to a refugee hospital in nearbyPerpignan.[7]
Casals traveled extensively to Puerto Rico in 1955, inaugurating the annualCasals Festival the next year. In 1955, Casals married as his second wife long-time associateFrancesca Vidal i Puig [es], who died that same year. In 1957, at age 80, Casals married 20-year-oldMarta Montañez y Martinez.[19] He is said to have dismissed concerns that marriage to someone 60 years his junior might be hazardous by saying, "I look at it this way: if she dies, she dies."[20][21] Pau and Marta made their permanent residence in the town ofCeiba, and lived in a house called "El Pessebre" (The Manger).[22] He made an impact in the Puerto Rican music scene by founding thePuerto Rico Symphony Orchestra in 1958, and theConservatory of Music of Puerto Rico in 1959.
Casals appeared in the 1958 documentary filmWindjammer. In the 1960s, Casals gave manymaster classes throughout the world in places such asGstaad,Zermatt, Tuscany,Berkeley, andMarlboro. Several of these master classes were televised.
On 13 November 1961, he performed in theEast Room at the White House by invitation of PresidentKennedy at a dinner given in honor of the Governor of Puerto Rico,Luis Muñoz Marín. This performance was recorded and released asan album.
Casals was also a composer. Perhaps his most effective work isLa Sardana, for an ensemble of cellos, which he composed in 1926. His oratorioEl Pessebre was performed for the first time inAcapulco, Mexico, on 17 December 1960. He also presented it to the United Nations during their anniversary in 1963. He was initiated as an honorary member of the Epsilon Iota chapter ofPhi Mu Alpha Sinfonia music fraternity atFlorida State University in 1963.[23] He was later awarded the fraternity'sCharles E. Lutton Man of Music Award in 1973.
One of his last compositions was the "Hymn of the United Nations".[24] He conducted its first performance in a special concert at the United Nations on 24 October 1971, two months before his 95th birthday.[25] On that day, the Secretary-General of the United Nations,U Thant, awarded Casals the U.N. Peace Medal in recognition of his stance for peace, justice and freedom.[26] Casals accepted the medal and made his famous "I Am a Catalan" speech,[27] where he stated thatCatalonia had the first democraticparliament, long before England did.
In 1973, invited by his friendIsaac Stern, Casals arrived at Jerusalem to conduct the youth orchestra and the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra.TheJerusalem Music Center inMishkenot Sha'ananim was inaugurated by Casals shortly before his death.[28] The concert he conducted with the youth orchestra at the Jerusalem Khan Theater was the last concert he conducted.[29]
Casals's memoirs were taken down byAlbert E. Kahn, and published asJoys and Sorrows: Pablo Casals, His Own Story (1970).
Casals died on October 22, 1973 at Auxilio Mutuo Hospital inHato Rey, Puerto Rico, at the age of 96, from complications of a heart attack he had had three weeks earlier. He was buried at Puerto Rico Memorial Cemetery inCarolina, Puerto Rico.[4][30] He did not live to see the end of the Francoist State, which occurred two years later, but he was posthumously honoured by the Spanish government underKing Juan Carlos I which in 1976 issued a commemorative postage stamp depicting Casals, in honour of the centenary of his birth.[31] In 1979 his remains were interred in his hometown of El Vendrell, Tarragona. In 1989, Casals was posthumously awarded aGrammy Lifetime Achievement Award.[32]
In 1959, American writerMax Eastman wrote of Casals:
He is by common consent the greatest cellist that ever lived.Fritz Kreisler went farther and described him as "the greatest man who ever drew a bow."[33]
The southern part of the highway C-32 in Catalonia, Spain, is namedAutopista de Pau Casals.
The International Pau Casals Cello Competition is held inKronberg andFrankfurt am Main, Germany, under the auspices of theKronberg Academy once every four years, starting in 2000, to discover and further the careers of the future cello elite, and is supported by the Pau Casals Foundation, under the patronage of his widow,Marta Casals Istomin. One of the prizes is the use of one of the Gofriller cellos owned by Casals. The first top prize was awarded in 2000 toClaudio Bohórquez.
Australian radio broadcasterPhillip Adams often fondly recalls Casals's 80th birthday press conference where, after complaining at length about the troubles of the world, he paused to conclude with the observation: "The situation is hopeless. We must take the next step".[34][35][36]
In Puerto Rico, theCasals Festival is still celebrated annually. There is also a museum dedicated to the life of Casals located inOld San Juan. On 3 October 2009,Sala Sinfónica Pau Casals, a symphony hall named in Casals's honour, opened inSan Juan, Puerto Rico. The $34 million building, designed by Rodolfo Fernandez, is the latest addition to theCentro de Bellas Artes complex. It is the new home of thePuerto Rico Symphony Orchestra.
Prades, France, is home to another Pau Casals Museum located inside the public library. Many of the artist's memorabilia and precious documents are there: photos, concert outfits, authentic letters, original scores of the Pessebre, interview soundtracks, films, paintings, a cello, and his first piano.[37][38]
InTokyo, theCasals Hall, designed byArata Isozaki, opened in 1987 as a venue for chamber music.[39] Pau Casals Elementary School in Chicago is named in his honor.[40] I.S. 181 in the Bronx is also named after Casals.[41]
Casals'smotetO vos omnes, composed in 1932, is frequently performed today.
InPablo Larraín's 2016 filmJackie, Casals is played byRoland Pidoux.
In 2019, Casal's albumBach Six Cello Suites was selected by theLibrary of Congress for preservation in theNational Recording Registry as "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".[42]
| External audio | |
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 You may hear Pau Casals performingAntonín Dvorak's "Cello Concerto" withGeorge Szell conducting theCzech Philharmonic Orchestra in 1937Here |
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| You may hear Pablo Casals conducting theMarlboro Festival Orchestra withRudolf Serkin,Peter Serkin, andAlexander Schneider performing: Johann Sebastian Bach'sBrandenburg Concertos No 1-6 in 1965 Here on Archive.org |
Pablo Casals, the celebrated cellist and conductor, died today [October 22] at Auxilio Mutuo Hospital of complications from a heart attack suffered three weeks ago. He was 96 years old and lived in nearby Santurce with his wife, Marta
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