Pablo Casals

Pau Casals i Defilló (December 29, 1876 – October 22, 1973), commonly known as Pablo Casals, was a virtuoso Catalan cello player (and later conductor). He made many recordings throughout his career, of solo, chamber, and orchestral music, also as conductor, but Casals is best remembered for the recording of Bach's Cello Suites he made from 1936 to 1939.

Later years

In 1950 he resumed his career as conductor and cellist at the Prades Festival, organized in commemoration of the bicentennial of the death of Bach; he continued leading the Prades Festivals until 1966.

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In 1956, he made his permanent residence San Juan, Puerto Rico, where his mother had been born (when the island was still under Spanish rule).

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In 1957 an annual Festival Casals was inaugurated there.

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On August 3, 1957, at the age of 80, Casals married Marta Montañez, a young pupil of his.

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Throughout the 1960s Casals gave many master classes in Switzerland, Italy, Berkeley, California, and Marlboro, Vermont, some of which were televised.

Related Topics:
Switzerland - Italy - Berkeley, California - Marlboro - Vermont

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Casals was also a composer; perhaps his most effective work is La sardana, for an ensemble of cellos, which he composed in 1926.

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His oratorio El pesebre (The Manger) was performed for the first time in Acapulco, Mexico, on December 17, 1960.

Related Topics:
Acapulco - Mexico

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One of his last compositions was the Himno a las Naciones Unidas (Hymn of the United Nations); he conducted its first performance in a special concert at the United Nations on October 24, 1971, 2 months before his 95th birthday.

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Casals wrote a memoir, Joys and Sorrows; Reflections (1973).

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Casals died in San Juan, Puerto Rico at the age of 96.

Related Topics:
San Juan - Puerto Rico

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He did not live to see the end of the Franco regime, but he was posthumously honored by the Spanish government under King Juan Carlos I, which issued in 1976 a commemorative postage stamp in honor of his 100th birthday.

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