Stamp of the Month: October 2023

Pablo Casals


Spain 29.12.1976
The Spanish cellist Pablo Casals was born on December 29, 1876 in El Vendrell. He died on October 22, 1973 in San Juan, Puerto Rico. October 2023 will mark the 50th anniversary of his death.
 
As a child, Casals was taught singing, piano, organ and composition by his father, and his mother recognized his talent for the cello. He attended the conservatory in Barcelona and in 1895 planned to study with François-Auguste Gevaert in Brussels on a scholarship from the Queen of Spain.
However, Gevaert refused to accept new students. After a brief stint as a cellist in a theater orchestra in Paris, Casals returned to Barcelona and began teaching. In 1897 he received a professorship in cello at the Barcelona Conservatory and became principal cellist in the orchestra of the Gran Teatre del Liceu. His concert performances were celebrated by the press and audience. From 1901 he undertook numerous concert tours, especially to the United States and Russia, where he got to know all the well-known Russian composers. His career as a conductor began with the founding of the “Orquesta Pau Casals” in 1919. With the start of the Spanish Civil War, Casals went into exile in Prades, France, in 1936, where he founded a chamber music festival in 1950. In 1956, Casals moved to Puerto Rico, where he also started a festival. In 1958 he helped to found the Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra and he is a co-founder of the San Juan Conservatory.
As a composer, Pablo Casals created sacred music and orchestral works. His best-known work is the oratorio “El Pessebre”. As a cellist, Casals received particular attention with his interpretation of the suites for solo cello by Johann Sebastian Bach, which until then had been virtually unknown to the audience. At the age of 93, Casals was still practicing the cello for four to five hours every day. When asked “Why?” he once replied: “I feel like I’m making progress.”

Mexico 29.12.1976

The video shows Pablo Casals with the Bourrées from Suite No. 3
by Johann Sebastian Bach (BWV 1009).