When was pablo casals born

He often played with the pianist Harold Bauer. Between and he had a relationship with a Portuguese cellist Guilhermina Suggia , although they were never married. In Casals married the American singer Susan Metcalfe. They were separated in , but did not divorce until Casals formed a trio with the pianist Alfred Cortot and the violinist Jacques Thibaud. They gave many concerts and made some of the first recordings of piano trio music.

They played together for 30 years. In he toured Russia. It was an unfortunate time because the Russian Revolution was taking place. During the concert he played in Moscow gunfire could be heard outside the hall.

In he went back to Barcelona. He wanted to improve the music in his own country. There were very few people who could play well, so he founded his own orchestra: the Orquesta Pau Casals.

This annual music festival continued until the start of the Spanish Civil War in Casals supported the Spanish Republican government. When it was defeated he said that he would not return until Spain was once more a democratic country.

He then left his country and went into exile. He went to live in the French village of Prades which was near the border with Spain. He continued his career as a cellist. Outside the hall the police had to help him get to his car because so many people were crowding round him. In he gave a broadcast at the BBC and spoke to his people in Catalonia. He played it at the end of all his concerts. He made one big exception to his decision not to visit Franco-friendly countries: in he took part in a concert of chamber music in the White House on 13 November where he played to President John F Kennedy whom he admired.

In he continued his career as conductor and cellist at the Prades Festival in Conflent. He agreed to play on condition that the money that was made at the festival would be given to a refugee hospital nearby.

Franco said that Spaniards were forbidden to go to the festival, but many managed to cross the border on foot. When he was 80 Casals married one of his young students, a girl called Marta. They had met in Prades. They went to live in Puerto Rico in a house called "El Pesebre". In addition to his extraordinary career as a musician, Pau Casals was always a staunch defender of peace and freedom.

His numerous benefit concerts, his commitment to humanitarian actions and his various speeches at the United Nations characterized him clearly as a man of peace.

His remains now rest in the cemetery of El Vendrell. Museum: museu paucasals. In Casals traveled to Madrid, Spain, and gave concerts for the queen and her court.

Over the next few years his reputation spread as he played with various orchestras in Madrid. With his formal debut as a concert soloist in Paris, France, in , Casals's career was assured. Sometime in , while Casals and his father were in a Barcelona bookstore, he found a volume of Bach's six suites arrangements of music for solo cello.

Previously the suites were considered merely musical exercises, but Casals saw in them something deeper. He studied and practiced the suites every day for a dozen years before performing Pablo Casals. Casals's performance of the suites shocked listeners by correcting the previously held belief that Bach's solo music for strings had no warmth or artistic value. Casals's love of Bach's music carried over into the rest of his life. He vowed to use his music to help his fellow people. Casals often wrote letters and organized concerts on behalf of the oppressed, and he refused to perform in countries, such as the Soviet Union, Germany, and Italy, whose governments mistreated their citizens.

He settled in Prades, France, and gave occasional concerts until , when, to take a stand against tyrants such as Franco, Casals vowed never to perform again. However, encouraged by friends, Casals resumed playing in , participating in the Prades Festival organized to honor Bach. At the end of the festival and every concert he gave after that, Casals played "Song of the Birds," a Catalonian folk song, to protest the continued oppression in Spain. In he settled in Puerto Rico and started the Casals Festival, which led to the creation of a symphony orchestra and a music school on the island.

Casals never returned to Spain. Casals also continued to refuse to perform in countries that officially recognized the Franco government. Until his death in , Casals made only one exception—in he performed at the White House for U. President John F. Kennedy — , a man he greatly admired.

Casals sought to inspire harmony among people, with both his cello and his silence. Blum, David.