External media Audio: You can listen to Pablo Casals performing the Cello Concerto by Antonín Dvorak with George Szell and the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra in 1937 Here (in English)
Pau Casals i Defilló,[1] whose full name was Pau Carles Salvador Casals i Defilló (El Vendrell, Tarragona, December 29, 1876 – San Juan, Puerto Rico, October 22, 1973), was one of the most distinguished Spanish musicians of the 20th century. Born to a Catalan father and a mother born into a family of Catalan indianos in Puerto Rico, Casals is considered one of the finest cellists of all time.
One of his most celebrated compositions is the "United Nations Hymn", known as the "Hymn of Peace", composed while he was living in Puerto Rico, where other internationally renowned Spaniards had also lived, such as Juan Ramón Jiménez and Francisco Ayala. A magnificent conductor and a most notable composer, Casals was always a thoroughly complete artist, of iron discipline and great dedication.
Besides standing out as a performer, Casals was also recognized for his activism in defense of peace, democracy, freedom and human rights, which earned him prestigious decorations such as the UN Peace Medal and a nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize. Casals also publicly expressed his opposition to the Franco regime (see chap. V of his memoirs, originally dictated in French to Albert E. Kahn and translated into Catalan as Joia i Tristor).
Pau Casals died on October 22, 1973, at the age of ninety-six, in San Juan (Puerto Rico), as a result of a heart attack. He was buried in the Puerto Rico Memorial Cemetery in San Juan. That city hosts the present-day Casals Festival of Puerto Rico and is home to the Pablo Casals Museum.
On November 9, 1979, once democracy had been restored in Spain, his remains were moved to the cemetery of El Vendrell, his hometown, where they currently rest.
In the center of Vendrell stands the Pau Casals House-Museum, and in the San Salvador district of the same town, the headquarters of the Pau Casals Foundation, with another house-museum facing an auditorium named after him, and with a bust made by the sculptor Josep Maria Subirachs.
His musical work as cellist, composer and conductor
Casals around 1909
Among Pau Casals's most important contributions is having changed the technique of cello playing, seeking more natural movements far removed from the rigid technique of the 19th century and always keeping the bow pressed to the strings. He rescued from oblivion the superb cello suites of Johann Sebastian Bach; the recordings he made of them between 1936 and 1939 are legendary, although he recorded them repeatedly.
From childhood Casals already showed great sensitivity to music. His father, Carles Casals i Ribes, also a musician, passed on to him his first musical knowledge, which Pau Casals expanded with studies in Barcelona and Madrid. In that city he studied alongside the other great Spanish cellist of the 20th century, Juan Ruiz Casaux, both being pupils of the professor at the National School of Music, Víctor Mirecki, founder of the modern Spanish cello school, and of Jesús de Monasterio in the advanced chamber music chair. At only twenty-three years of age, he began his professional career and performed in the finest concert halls in the world.
As a performer, he brought innovative changes to cello playing and introduced new technical and expressive possibilities. As a conductor, he likewise sought expressive depth, the musical essence that he knew how to reach with the cello. Especially well known are the versions he conducted at the Malborough Festival of the Brandenburg Concertos by Johann Sebastian Bach, his favorite composer, symphonies by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, etc.
Pau Casals also worked as a professor at the Royal Conservatory of Madrid. Besides being a cellist, he also developed his career as a composer, leaving a legacy of works, among which is the oratorioEl Pessebre, which he presented in various countries. He popularized the old Catalan song "El cant dels ocells" by playing it at the headquarters of the UN; this melody has ended up becoming a true song of peace.
In 1973, he died in San Juan, Puerto Rico: the country's government declared three days of national mourning, and condolences were received from all the important heads of state, the great musicians and the people in general. In Mexico City, from the main theater, the Palace of Fine Arts, the symphonic poem El Pessebre was presented with renowned soloists, two orchestras and choir, conducted by Enrique Gimeno, and it was broadcast internationally by satellite.
<phonos file="Testimonio_del_músico_Pablo_Casals_desde_San_Juan_de_Puerto_Rico.ogg">Testimony of the musician Pablo Casals from San Juan, Puerto Rico</phonos>
En el mirall canviant de la mar blava (Catalan Song no. 1) (Cerdanyola del Vallès, 1895)
A l'enterrament de un nin (Catalan Song no. 2) (Barcelona, 1895)
Al despertar-se de matinada (Catalan Song no. 3) (Barcelona, 1896)
Nigra Sum (for the monastery of Montserrat)
Cançó a la Verge (to Our Lady of Montserrat)
Oració a la Verge
O Vos Omnes
El Pessebre, Oratorio with text by Joan Alavedra. Acapulco, Guerrero, Mexico. 1960
His political and social commitment
Monument to Pau Casals in BarcelonaCasals during a visit to Israel, 1969
Alongside his career as a musician, Pau Casals always maintained a tireless dedication to the defense of peace, democracy and freedom, and throughout his life he gave evidence of his commitment to the working class with orchestras that he founded and sponsored for workers and farm laborers, as well as by making financial contributions for refugees and exiles. In addition, in 1905 he founded in Barcelona the Catalan Committee against War together with the astronomer José Comas y Solá and the geologist Alberto Carsí.
Although, during the years of the Franco regime, Spanish official bodies and media called him Pablo Casals, he always demanded to be called Pau, not only because that was his name in Catalan, a language he always defended, but also because in Catalan the word "pau" means "peace".[2]
In 1917 he announced his decision not to perform again in Russia, after the events of the Russian Revolution and the establishment of the communist system. In the following years he would extend that decision to all the so-called communist countries where there was no "democracy".
In 1926 he created in Barcelona the Associació Obrera de Concerts (Workers' Concert Association): an independent body whose aim was to give the working class access to music education and to attending concerts.
Known for his republican ideals, in 1931 he publicly expressed his satisfaction at the proclamation of the Second Republic in Spain, and he was invited to take part in the events commemorating it. He took part in the events conducting the Orquestra Pau Casals and the Orfeó Gracienc, which performed Beethoven's Ninth Symphony at a performance in the Palace of Montjuïc in Barcelona. Ideologically he became a republican because of the progressive estrangement he experienced from Alfonso XIII beginning with the Dictatorship of Primo de Rivera and the suppression of the Mancomunitat. In fact, as he relates in the fourth chapter of his memoirs, he always expressed his gratitude to Queen María Cristina and wore set into the bow of his cello a ring she had given him.
In 1933 he declined an invitation to perform in Germany because of the rise to power of Adolf Hitler, whose doctrine he detested. He stated his intention not to play in that country until there was a change of political regime, despite having been threatened by the Nazis with having his hands burned.[citation needed]
In 1936, with the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, he publicly declared himself in favor of the Republic insofar as he wished to express his antifascist stance. In 1937 he was appointed a member of the Board of Cultural Relations of Catalonia, together with the writer Gabriel Alomar, the jurist Josep Xirau i Palau and the geologist Alberto Carsí, among others.
With the consolidation of the dictatorship he decided to move to live in San Juan, Puerto Rico (his mother Pilar Defilló Amiguet had been born in Puerto Rico, where his maternal grandparents, who were Catalan, had gone to work).
Between 1946 and 1950 he devoted himself to composition, study and teaching, while continuing to help Spanish refugees abroad.
In 1950 he promoted and presided over the celebration of the first Floral Games of the Catalan language in exile, which took place in Perpignan (France). That same year he also promoted, at the urging of the violinist Alexander Schneider, the creation of the music festival of Prades, which since then has been held every year under the name Pau Casals International Music Festival.
In 1950 he returned to performing in public, thanks also to the persuasion of Alexander Schneider. It was on the occasion of the first Prades Festival, organized to mark the bicentenary of the death of Bach, Casals's favorite composer.
On July 13, 1954, the Parliament of Catalonia in exile, meeting at the embassy of the Spanish Republic in Mexico, proposed him as President of the Generalitat of Catalonia. The cellist declined the post, convinced that "I serve Catalonia best in the present circumstances the way I serve it", and because he said he was not equal to such a dignity.
In 1956, Puerto Rico, Cuba and Mexico joined together to pay tribute to the artist and humanist in a heartfelt homage with the participation of the very greatest musicians, statesmen, figures from the arts and culture, choral groups and associations. This event is recorded in the book Pau Casals, peregrino en América by Josep García Borrás, and in that year the Casals Festival of Puerto Rico was created, as well as a "Long play" record.
In 1958, Casals visited Mexico for the World Cello Competition where, in the company of cellists such as Mstislav Rostropovich, Rubén Montiel and others, he judged the performance of top-level instrumentalists.
On October 24, 1958, he was invited to take part in the General Assembly of the United Nations, to commemorate United Nations Day. Casals's concert and message of peace were broadcast by radio to more than 40 countries. That appearance made him one of the world symbols of the struggle for peace and freedom in the world, and earned him the nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize that same year.
On December 17, 1960, at the Fort of San Diego in Acapulco (Guerrero, Mexico), as a token of gratitude to the country that had received the exiled Spaniards, he premiered the oratorio he had been composing with pacifist ideals since the 1940s on the prize-winning poem by Joan Alavedra, El Pesebre in Catalan.[2]
Details of publicity for El Pesebre, oratorio by Pau Casals.
On November 13, 1961, he gave a concert at the White House together with the Governor of Puerto Rico, Luis Muñoz Marín, invited by the President of the United States John Fitzgerald Kennedy. Previously, Casals had publicly supported President Kennedy's Democratic policy.
On April 19, 1962, he performed at the Memorial Opera House in San Francisco, where he presented El Pesebre. On the occasion of that concert, Pau Casals announced that he would devote the rest of his life to a personal crusade for human dignity, brotherhood and peace.
On October 24, 1963, he returned to the headquarters of the United Nations in New York to perform El Pessebre, with the Casals Festival Orchestra and the Cleveland Orchestra Chorus. The President of the United States, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, awarded him the Medal of Freedom of the United States.[2]
At the beginning of 1970, the journalist Jacobo Zabludovsky was brought by the musician Enrique Gimeno to Casals's home in Puerto Rico, where the only interview of that kind the cellist ever granted was conducted, televised and of long duration.
In March 1970 he was invited by his friend, the Catalan orchestral conductor Enrique Gimeno, to Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico to play the cello opening the Casals Festivals of Mexico, and together with Gimeno himself he conducted his oratorio El Pessebre. He would return to Mexico for other performances of his Pesebre in '71, when the Government of the State of Jalisco presented him with a residence.
On October 24, 1971, he received the Peace Medal at a tribute at the headquarters of the General Assembly of the United Nations in New York. At the ceremony, under his direction, the United Nations Hymn was performed, composed by Casals with lyrics by the poet W. H. Auden at the commission of U Thant, Secretary-General of the organization.
The piece became the Hymn to Peace, as it is also known. After the performance of the UN hymn, Casals gave a speech in English and Catalan, becoming the first person to use the Catalan language in the General Assembly of the United Nations.
Let me tell you something ... I am Catalan. Catalonia is today a region of Spain, but what was Catalonia? Catalonia has been the greatest nation in the world. I will tell you why. Catalonia had the first Parliament, long before England. Catalonia had the first United Nations: in the 11th century all the authorities of Catalonia met in a city of France —then Catalonia— to speak of peace, in the 11th century ... Peace in the world and against, against, against wars, the inhumanity of wars.[3]
— Pau Casals i Defilló, speech at the headquarters of the United Nations in 1971
After the speech, he performed the Cant dels ocells (in Spanish, "El canto de los pájaros", "The Song of the Birds"), a traditional Catalan composition that, from then on, became a new hymn to freedom.
Nevertheless, Casals always affirmed his Spanishness, which he reconciled with a militant Catalanism, and maintained an intense and extensive affectionate relationship with the monarchy, both attitudes being summed up in the following interview granted to the newspaper ABC in the last years of his life:
"I am a Catalanist but I have never been a separatist." "Queen María Cristina was like a second mother to me. I played the piano with her and played with Alfonso XIII." "A great woman, Elisabeth of Belgium. We were friends for 50 years. My wife and I spent long stays with her." "In the middle of the Republic, when they made me an adopted son of Madrid, I praised the Queen and everyone gave me an ovation."[4]
After Casals's death, as a posthumous tribute on Christmas Day 1973, at the Palace of Fine Arts in the Mexican capital, the oratorio "El Pessebre" was presented, conducted by Enrique Gimeno, with several choirs and orchestras and the presence of first-rank soloists, such as the Puerto Rican baritone Pablo Elvira and the Argentine cellist Adolfo Odnopossoff; it was broadcast live to the whole world, before the cultural and civil authorities (among them, the representative of the President of the Republic) and a large audience.[2]
Images of the concert of the Oratorio El Pesebre at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, April 1964
Together with his young wife Marta Casals Istomin, conducting the rehearsal of El Pesebre with the Coro Estable de Rosario
Chronology
Plaster cast of the hands of Pablo Casals, Casa Pilar Defilló Museum.A young Pau Casals as seen by Ramon Casas (MNAC)
1876: Born on December 29 at Calle Santa Ana, number 2, in El Vendrell, in Catalonia.
1889: Moves to Barcelona, and is hired to perform at the Cafè Tost for three hours every night, seven days a week, for 4 pesetas a month.
1893: Graduates with honors from the Municipal School of Music of Barcelona.
1893: Moves with his mother and siblings to live in Madrid, where he begins his second stage of training at the Conservatory of Music and Declamation, with Jesús de Monasterio as his chamber music teacher. He obtains a scholarship of 250 pesetas from Queen María Cristina.
1895: Travels to Brussels to study at the Conservatory of Music. After an incident with a professor, Casals decides to go to Paris. Queen María Cristina withdraws his allowance. After difficult days in Paris, he decides to return to Barcelona.
1896: In May he joins the Municipal School of Music of Barcelona as a teacher, and in November he becomes professor of cello at the Conservatory of the Liceu. He joins the Grand Orchestra of the Gran Teatre del Liceu as a cellist.
1897: Forms the "Crickboom Quartet" with the violinists Mathieu Crickboom and Josep Rocabruna, and the violist Rafael Gálvez. Tours Spain with Enrique Granados and Mathieu Crickboom.
1899: Moves to Paris, settling in the home of the American singer Emma Nevada. On the Isle of Wight, he gives a private concert for Queen Victoria of England.[5]
1900: Settles in Paris and begins his career as a soloist.
1904: Travels to the United States again, this time to perform as a soloist. On January 15 he performs for the first time at the White House, invited by the President of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt.
1905: Begins a romantic relationship with Guilhermina Suggia, a Portuguese cellist.
1905: Founds the Cortot-Thibaud-Casals Trio, together with the violinist Jacques Thibaud and the pianist Alfred Cortot. The trio would become one of the most prestigious in the world.
1905: First trip to Russia. Performs in the Hall of the Nobility in Saint Petersburg.
1908: His father, Carles Casals Riba, dies.
1912: The romantic relationship with Guilhermina Suggia ends.
1914: Marries the American soprano Susan Metcalfe on April 4 in New Rochelle (New York). Together they begin a tour of the United States.
1919: Returns to Barcelona. Settles at number 440 of the Avenida Diagonal, next to the Passeig de Gràcia.
1920: Founds the Orquestra Pau Casals, with his brother Enric Casals as concertmaster, Enric Ainaud as associate concertmaster and Bonaventura Dini as principal cello. November 1: Inaugural concert.
1927: El Vendrell places a commemorative plaque on the house where he was born. Takes part in the commemoration of the centenary of the death of Beethoven in Vienna as soloist and conductor.[5]
1928: Creation of the Associació Obrera de Concerts of Barcelona.[5]
1932: Appointed President of the Music Board of Catalonia.[5]
1933: Suspends artistic activities in Germany, in protest against the Nazi persecutions.[5]
1934: Barcelona inaugurates the Avinguda Pau Casals. Doctor honoris causa from the University of Edinburgh, at the same time as Albert Schweitzer.[5]
1935: Named "Adopted Son" of the city by the City Council of Madrid.[5]
1936: Learns of the military uprising of July 18 while conducting Beethoven's Choral Symphony in Barcelona.[5]
1939: During an illness in Paris he learns of the outcome of the Civil War. He moves to Prades and devotes himself to helping the Spanish refugees in the concentration camps.[5]
1940: Tries unsuccessfully in Bordeaux to board a ship to travel to England. Returns to Prades, to Villa Colette.
1942: Voluntary seclusion in Prades, after the "free zone" of France was occupied in November.[5]
1944: German troops evacuate Prades in the second half of August.[5]
1945: The war in Europe ends in June. Triumphant success at the Albert Hall in London and in other English cities. The provisional government of the French Republic names him Grand Officier of the Legion of Honour.[5]
1946: Publicly declares that he will not accept contracts or invitations to England until the government's policy changes.[5]
1950: First Prades Festival, commemorating the bicentenary of Bach's death.[5]
1952: The Prades Festival is held at the Abbey of Sant Miquel de Cuixà. There, with the collaboration of the pianist Rudolf Serkin, he records Beethoven's five sonatas for cello and piano.[5]
1955: First visit to Puerto Rico, where Governor Luis Muñoz Marín and the Legislative Assembly pay him the highest honors. Travels to Germany (first trip since 1933) and gives a private concert at the Beethovenhaus in Bonn.[5]
1956: In celebration of his eightieth birthday, a concert is given in October by the Orchestre Lamoureaux and more than one hundred cellists in the Great Hall of the Sorbonne.[5]
1958: Resumption of the Puerto Rico and Prades Festivals. In October, address in favor of peace and concert in the Assembly Hall of the United Nations.[5]
1960: Premiere, on December 24, of his oratorio El Pessebre in Acapulco (Mexico), conducted by himself. Begins "the pilgrimage for peace".[5]
1961: David Ben Gurion grants him the title of Honorary Citizen of Israel. The Crown Prince of Japan entertains him at the Imperial Palace. On November 13, invited by President John F. Kennedy, he gives a concert at the White House.[5]
1962: Presents the oratorio El Pessebre at Carnegie Hall in New York. Kennedy institutes the Medal of Freedom and awards it to some North American personalities and to two foreigners, Casals and Jean Monnet.[5]
1963: On the occasion of the 15th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, he conducts El Pessebre at the United Nations on October 24.[5]
1964: President of the Jury of the "CVI Floral Games of the Catalan Language", held in Perpignan, at the Palace of the Kings of Majorca.[5] Conducts in Buenos Aires (Argentina) the world's first performance of the oratorio El Pesebre in its original language (Catalan), at the Teatro Colón; performers: National Symphony Orchestra, soloists and the Choirs of Rosario and Córdoba.
1966: The San Juan and Prades festivals celebrate the ninetieth birthday of their founder.[5]
1972: Establishment of the Fundació Pau Casals of Catalonia, in San Juan, Puerto Rico.[5]
1973: On October 22 he dies in San Juan, Puerto Rico.[5]
1974: The first stage of the Museu Pau Casals is inaugurated in what had been his house in Sant Salvador.[5]
1976: Inauguration of the second stage of the museum.[5]
1979: Repatriation of his mortal remains on October 26.[5]
1981: Inauguration in Sant Salvador of the Auditori Pau Casals, June 6.[5]
1983: In Barcelona, a monument to the Maestro is unveiled on the renamed Avinguda Pau Casals.[5]
Music festivals in homage to Pau Casals
The presentation of the oratorio El Pesebre by Pau Casals, conducted by Enrique Gimeno, with Pablo Elvira and Paulino Saharrea singing, Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico.
At present, three international music festivals bearing the name of Pau Casals are held. The festivals take place in three of the most important places in Casals's life: El Vendrell, where he was born, grew up and where his remains rest; Prades (France), where he lived in exile after the Francoist victory in the Spanish Civil War; and San Juan, Puerto Rico, where he settled in 1942 until his death in 1973.
1945: Named "Doctor Honoris Causa" by the universities of Oxford and Cambridge. Casals declines the distinction in protest at the English government's inaction toward Franco's dictatorship in Spain.
1970: During the Casals Festivals of Guadalajara (Jalisco, Mexico), the state government decorates him with the medal of merit.
1971: Naming of Pablo Casals street in Guadalajara (Mexico).
1971: Grand Cross of the National Order of Merit of France.
1971: United Nations Peace Medal, presented by the Secretary-General of the Monument to Pau Casals in WolfenbüttelUN, U Thant, at the session of October 24, 1971.
1974: The name "Pau Casals" is given to Day Secondary School No. 125 in Mexico City, Mexico, at the urging of Enrique Gimeno.
A monument to the maestro was erected in the German city of Wolfenbüttel. Author and principal donor: the artist from Alcoy/Alicante Antoni Miró. Date: May 5, 1985, Europe Day, in the year declared by UNESCO the "Year of Music".
[1] The conductor Enrique Gimeno, a friend of Casals, conducts, as a posthumous tribute televised by satellite to the whole world, the oratorio El Pesebre with great soloists, on Christmas Day of '73 in Mexico City.
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P. Casals conducting "El Pesebre"
of October 24, 2013, of the Radio Clásica program Músicas de España.
