Great Cellists: Pablo Casals

 

Pablo Casals was born in Catalonia in Spain. (1876-1973) He lived for almost a century and made lots of recordings. He started on flute and violin and changed to cello when he was 11 or so. He made his debut in 1891 in Barcelona. His first job was in the opera house Le Liceu in Barcelona. He lived much of his life in the South of France. He was a very good tennis player. In his early career, his mother used to travel with him. He was fine when he got on stage there but needed a bit of a push from his mother to get there.

He was the first cellist to play the Bach cello suites in a concert and he sparked a lot of interest in them and every virtuoso cellist since aspires to play them.  Listen to  Pablo Casals perform The Song of the Birds (‘El cant dels ocells’), a traditional Catalan carol.

Casals made the song famous with his version for cello, which he would play as an encore. He performed it on 24 October 1971 at the General Assembly of the United Nations when he received the UN Peace Medal. He was 94. Before he began playing he said:

‘I have not played the cello in public for many years, but I feel that the time has come to play again. I am going to play a melody from Catalan folklore: El cant dels ocells - The Song of the Birds. Birds sing when they are in the sky, they sing: “Peace, Peace, Peace”, and it is a melody that Bach, Beethoven and all the greats would have admired and loved. What is more, it is born in the soul of my people, Catalonia.’

Great Performers: No 3 Jascha Heifetz

Jascha Heifetz  Video Clip  Click on the link to watch Jascha Heifetz play.

Jascha Heifetz was known as God's fiddler, so amazing was the perfection of his playing. He was born in Lithuania in 1901 which was then part of Russia. His father began to teach him when he was three years old. He was a child prodigy and was performing on stage when he was only six years old. He fled his home country in 1917 at the start of the Russian Revolution and spent the rest of his life in America. At 16 yeras old, he gave a concert at Carnegie Hall in New York.  "Pandemonium erupted after the recital, with ‘bravos shaking the walls of the auditorium’, according to one report. Among the headlines that followed were ‘Perfect Violin Playing at Last’, ‘Boy Violinist Wins Triumph’ and ‘Enter a Genius: Jascha Heifetz’.He traveled the world to give concerts and came to Ireland at least once during the 1920's. He hurt his shoulder and stopped playing in his late sixties and spent the rest of his life teaching and working for good causes. 

He made lots of recordings during his long life. I have two of his recordings to the WAMA Strings spotify list Listen here WAMA Strings 

Also you can hear him play work by Russian composer Tchaikowsky here https://archive.org/details/TCHAIKOVSKYViolinConcerto-Heifetz-NEWTRANSFER/01.I.AllegroModerato.mp3

He was said be like a statue on stage - very serious but the emotion and fire came through his playing. He died in 1987 in Los Angelos.  Look at that bow hand!