Pablo casals museum: 3 reviews and 4 photos
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33 rue de l’Hospice
66500 PRADES
France
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Covid-19 : ce prestataire a mis en place des mesures spécifiques supplémentaires en raison du contexte lié à cette crise sanitaire.
Prades has dedicated a center to the great humanist, cellist and prestigious composer: Pablo Casals. Many of the artist’s memorabilia and precious documents are there: photos, concert outfits, authentic letters, original scores of the Pessebre, interview soundtracks, films, paintings, a cello and his first piano. Visits are free but groups must book.
Opening hours as of the Library’s.
Museum themeMusic
Sites and monuments themeArtist’s house
Pets welcomeno
Spoken languages
French
Pass Patrimoine – Heritage passno
RestrictionsPets not welcome, Cameras, Cell phone forbidden, Proper clothing required
Visits
Tariffs
Opening hours
In the surrounding area
Museu Pau Casals | Cases icòniques de Catalunya
ON SOM
Av. Palfuriana, 67, Platja de Sant Salvador. El Vendrell
+34 977 684 276
[email protected]
www.paucasals.org
Pablo Casals had Vil·la Casals built on the seafront of Sant Salvador Beach in El Vendrell in 1910.
The villa, with its gardens, sculpture garden and belvedere looking out over the sea, was initially designed as a summer residence and was renovated by the architect Antoni Puig i Gairalt between 1931 and 1936. Pablo Casals lived here till 1939, when he went into exile, never to return. This house was his connection with Catalonia and, as he himself put it, “the expression and the synthesis of my life as a Catalan and as an artist”.
Pablo Casals and his wife, Marta, created the Pau Casals Foundation in 1972 for the purpose of preserving his artistic legacy and other heritage, as well as the villa itself. In 2001, the building reopened following refurbishment work and a new museographical design that gives visitors the opportunity to appreciate the life and the extensive musical and humanistic bequest left by one of the most universal figures in Catalan culture.
The Pau Casals Museum is one of the finest museums specialising in a musician in Europe. It offers a regular programme of activities and services for the general public throughout the year and has a multipurpose room, auditorium, gift shop and a restaurant.
Anem de visita
The museum is in the Costa Daurada region and is just 20 minutes from Tarragona and an hour and a half from Barcelona. Its location, on Sant Salvador Beach looking out to sea, makes it a magnificent place to visit. Through its modern museography, which respects the villa’s original rooms, the museum presents the life and work of Pablo Casals in an innovative and contemporary manner. The tour includes not only the museum but also the gardens laid out in the neoclassical style, the sculpture gallery and the belvedere with views of the Mediterranean.
Inside the museum is the Restaurant Vil·la Casals, situated in a unique spot with a magnificent outdoor terrace, where guests can enjoy the remarkable setting full of history. The museum also has a gift shop offering products related to the museum and Pablo Casals.
Pablo Casals
Pablo Casals (El Vendrell, 1876 – Puerto Rico, 1973) is one of the best known names in Catalan culture.
His musical talent was recognised internationally and he was regarded as the most important musician of his era. As a cellist, he introduced innovations in the way the instrument was played and he was also a world-renowned orchestra conductor and a great composer.
He forced into exile by the outcome of the Spanish Civil War and went to live firstly in Prades in France and later in San Juan in Puerto Rico, where he died at the age of 96.
In addition to his extraordinary career as a musician, Pablo Casals was a staunch defender of peace, justice and freedom. He refused from the outset to perform in countries that did not respect democratic principles, and in the final years of his life he spoke out against numerous wars and against the use of nuclear weapons. This commitment earned him a host of awards and honours, among them the American Presidential Medal of Freedom (1963), the United Nations Peace Medal (1971) and two nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize (1956 and 1958).
Cellist Pablo Casals
(1876–1973)
“It was not worth waiting for my opinion to proclaim Casals the greatest artist, since in this respect the opinions of all authoritative people are unanimous,” said Albert Einstein about the famous cellist Pablo Casals .
The birthplace of Pablo Casals is the city of Vendrell, located in the Spanish province of Tarragona. His father was a church organist – and it was thanks to him that Pablo fell in love with music from early childhood. As the musician later recalled, he learned to sing before he spoke, and at the age of two he loved to listen to his father play, putting his head to the piano. Father became the first mentor for Pablo. From the age of five, the boy sang in the church choir, and soon began to learn to play three musical instruments at once – violin, organ and piano. The training was so successful that at the age of eight he already performed at concerts as a violinist, and as an organist replaced his father when he was ill – and parishioners often could not determine who played, father or son.
Despite his son’s successes, his father did not want Pablo to become a musician – he knew from experience that this profession does not bring much income, but his mother supported his son in his intention to study music professionally.
Accompanied by her, the twelve-year-old Pablo went to Barcelona, where he entered the Municipal School of Music. Here he began to master a new instrument for him – the cello, and already in his youth he showed a penchant for creative searches. At that time, the “hard hand” technique was the dominant trend, students were even forced to hold a book under their arm during classes in order to fix the elbow. Casals, outraging his strict mentor, on the contrary, sought to free his hand, to achieve its utmost flexibility. With regard to the left hand, its position on the neck and fingering, he also strove for naturalness and freedom of movement. Along with the art of playing the cello, Casals studied composition. Despite such a teaching load, he managed to earn money by playing in a cafe – so as not to burden his family with the cost of his education.
One of the strongest impressions of those years for the young musician was the cello suites of Johann Sebastian Bach. Previously, not even suspecting the existence of these suites, Casals saw them in a music store.
He firmly decided to perform Bach’s suites, and without any cuts – but twelve years passed before he decided to do it.
In his youth, Pablo Casals experienced a severe mental crisis, he even thought about suicide, but was able to overcome this state. The cellist was eighteen years old when he went to Madrid, where he continued his education under Jesus de Monasterio and Thomas Brenton. The talented young musician had a high-ranking patron – the Spanish grandee de Morfi, at his insistence, Pablo regularly visited the Prado. He combined his studies with work in a theater orchestra.
After two years of study in Madrid, Casals returned to Barcelona, where he began teaching at the Municipal School of Music. At the same time he gave concerts in Spain and Portugal.
In 1899 the cellist made his debut in Paris, in 1901 he made his first appearance in America. His first trip to Russia coincided with the revolution of 1905, but this did not prevent his performances. Until 1913 he came to Russia every year.
He performed cello concertos by Camille Saint-Saens, Antonin Dvorak, Robert Schumann, as well as Bach suites.
Casals’ concert activity was not limited to solo performances. In 1906, a trio appeared, which consisted of Jacques Thibault, Pablo Casals and Alfred Cortot, who successfully toured Europe. And in 1920, having founded a symphony orchestra in Barcelona, Casals began to act as a conductor. At a rehearsal for this orchestra in 1936, he learned about the fascist coup in Spain. Casals invited the orchestra members to play to the end of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, which they were then rehearsing: “I don’t know when we will meet again,” he told the musicians.
After leaving his homeland, the cellist went to France, where he lived in subsequent years. In the territories subject to the fascists, he did not act on principle, and at the end of the war he again began to give concerts, but he was worried that the European governments did not stop relations with the Franco regime, his appeals remained unanswered, and in protest he again stopped giving concerts – although he was offered huge fees.
He made an exception only in 1958 for the International Congress in honor of United Nations Day, and in 1961 spoke at the Washington White House – again hoping that his political appeals would be heard.
In 1956, Casals visited the homeland of his mother and wife – Puerto Rico, and soon settled there, in the city of San Juan. He visited Italy, Switzerland, Japan and other countries, organizing performing arts courses there.
The musician died in 1973. In San Juan, where he spent the last decades of his life, there is the Pablo Casals Museum, and the Casals Festival is held. The remains of the great cellist were transported to their homeland and buried in a cemetery in his hometown of Vendrell in 1979 The house-museum of Casals was created in Vendrell.
All rights reserved. Copying is prohibited.
Casals Pablo
The great scientist Albert Einstein once remarked “ Right, it was not worth waiting for my opinion to proclaim Pablo Casals the greatest artist, since in this respect the opinions of all authoritative people are unanimous.
But what I especially admire about him is the firm stand he takes not only towards the oppressors of his people, but also towards the opportunists who are always ready to make any deal with the devil. He realized with amazing insight that the world is in greater danger from those who tolerate or condone evil than from those who commit it. “. In the history of the cello art, the performing art of Casals constituted a whole epoch. He had a huge impact on other areas of musical performance, in many ways becoming an example for both pianists and violinists. Pablo Casals was born December 29, 1876 in Vendrell. His father, the organist of the local church, taught his son the first music lessons.
According to Pablo “ It was he who awakened in me the love of music with his lessons and his example.” “Music was a natural element for me, – Casals admits – is the same natural necessity, if you like, like breathing. I sang correctly before I could speak.
… When I was two or three years old, in order to better listen to my father’s playing, I sat on the floor and put my head to the piano.”
At the age of five, the boy began to sing in the church choir, and the first instruments he began to learn to play were the piano and violin. At the age of seven, Pablo already knew how to transpose any piece. At the age of eight, he even performed as a violinist in one concert at Vendrell. Mastered little Pablo and organ “Soon I was able to fill in for my teacher father when he was ill .”
How skillful his game was can be judged by the following incident. “Once,” says Casals, “leaving the church, I met a shoemaker who lived opposite, an ardent admirer of my father.
– How I love listening to your father ! he said to me enthusiastically.
– My father is sick, – I answered, – I played today. Startled, full of enthusiasm, he called his wife.
— Look, it wasn’t Carleto who played today, it was Paulito.
– And, having kissed me, the married couple treated me to carquinyolis (dry cakes) and vibo (sweet wine) ”.
Pablo received his general education at a village school. My father believed that music would provide too modest a livelihood and that one should simultaneously engage in some kind of craft. Saved by the insistence of the mother. She herself went with the boy to Barcelona when Pablo was in his twelfth year. In Barcelona, he entered the College of Music, where, in addition to the cello class, he studied harmony and counterpoint with Rodereda.
Even then the young musician showed independence, logical creative thinking and musical intuition. He began to inquisitively and tirelessly seek ways to improve cello technique.
Statue of Casals erected for his centenary on Montserrat.
“ I wanted ,” Casals later said, “ to free the playing of the instrument from any kind of stiffness, stiffness and from all conventions .
.. At that time we were forced to play with a hard hand and during the game to keep a book under my arm … I wanted to instill full flexibility in the movements of my right hand and for this purpose – to the surprise of the traditionalists who shouted guard – I allowed the elbow to play freely, facilitating and strengthening the movements of the bow. Further, I improved the fingering, position and movements of the fingers of the left hand, and always followed what seemed to me simple and natural.0041 .
Casals studied at the Barcelona school for only three years. In order not to burden his parents too much, little Pablo earned money by playing in a string trio in a cafe.
One day, while walking with his father through the streets of Barcelona, Pablo noticed Bach Suites in the window of a music shop. « I didn’t even know they existed… This discovery was the greatest revelation of my life… I was delighted and immediately began to learn these suites.
.. I studied them for twelve whole years before I decided to perform them publicly. Before me, neither violinists nor cellists had ever performed a complete suite or sonata of this genius. They were usually limited to some kind of sarabande, gavotte or allemande. I decided to play these works without a single cut… »
Casals soon made his debut as a cellist in Barcelona’s “Theater of Novelties”. But it was very difficult for Pablo to have a transitional period of maturity, the formation of views on life. At the age of 16, experiencing a great spiritual crisis, he almost committed suicide, became religious.
In 1894 Casals moved to Madrid. Here, Thomas Brenton became his teacher in composition, and Jesus de Monasterio in chamber music. Casals spoke of the latter with admiration. The general education of the boy was led by Count de Morfi, a Spanish grandee, infinitely in love with his young protégé.
The count forced Pablo to visit the Prado museum daily in order to expand his artistic horizon.
Casals lived in Madrid for two and a half years, having worked as a second cellist in the orchestra of the Folies Marigny theater, earning 4 francs a week. Then in Barcelona, Pablo managed to get a teaching position at the city’s music school.
While working in the capital of Catalonia, Pablo made his first concert tours in Spain as part of a quartet, where the first violin was the Belgian Mathieu Krikbom. So Casals visited Madrid, Bilbao, Valencia, Portugal. At 1898 in Madrid, the musician received an invitation from the queen to the palace. After the concert, she presented Pablo with a magnificent bracelet with an emerald and a cello by Galliano.
In 1899 Casals left for Paris. Count Morphy gave him a letter of recommendation to the famous French conductor Charles Lamouret. On November 12, 1899, Casals made his debut in the capital of France.
And two or three years later, his concert tours began.
1901 and 1904 Casals made trips to America. From 1905 to 1913, the musician visited Russia every year, performing in concerts by A. I. Siloti.
Casals could never forget the circumstances of his first trip to Russia. « It was in 1905, at the moment of the revolutionary explosion that shook the empire of the tsars. I had to go to Moscow. The train, having reached Vilna – in my opinion, it was Vilna – stopped and did not go further. All passengers get off. I was in the waiting room and didn’t know what to do; At that moment a gentleman approaches me. He recommends himself as a general and some big boss in the railway company. “You are Mr. Pablo Casals,” he asks me. Having received an affirmative answer, he continues to ask me questions, from which I realized that he knows as much about my life as I do myself … ”As a result, the general suggested that Casals take him to St.
Petersburg in a special train. “I immediately agreed, especially since I immediately remembered Siloti, the conductor of one of the orchestras of the Russian capital.
– You were personally acquainted with him
– No, but we corresponded …
In St. I will not forget my first performance in front of the Russian public. The success that fell to our lot forced me and Siloti to organize a number of concerts, which, in view of the unfolding events, took place in a very peculiar atmosphere. These concerts were given in the magnificent hall of the Assembly of the Nobility, lit instead of electricity by wax candles in connection with the general strike. My suitcase got lost on the way and I was forced to appear on the stage in a simple suit… »
The first concert of Casals in St. Petersburg took place in November 1905. One of the greatest Russian music critics of that time, A.V. Ossovsky wrote “Thanks to a lucky chance, as a result of a railway strike, St.
Petersburg managed in the second symphony concert of A.I. Siloti to get acquainted with a first-class cello virtuoso, the Spaniard Pablo Casals. Unprepossessing, but handsome in appearance, completely unknown to our public, this artist from the very first introduction of his instrument in the Saint-Saens concert took possession of the hall, and with the last chord of the work such noisy and unceasing ovations arose, with which St. Petersburgers indulge only their recognized favorites …
… I can’t remember such a finished performance of excerpts from Beethoven’s suites (sonatas) for solo cello .”
At Ziloti, Casals met many Russian musicians – Cui, Rimsky-Korsakov, Glazunov, and during concerts in Moscow – Scriabin and Rachmaninoff.
Later, recalling the concerts of 1908, A. B. Goldenweiser wrote “ The best cellist in the world and one of the most amazing, brilliantly gifted artists that I ever heard in my life was the famous Spanish cellist Pablo Casals.
.. His playing, with the utmost virtuoso perfection, amazing nobility and beauty of sound, was distinguished by extraordinary simplicity and penetration…
One cannot forget in his performances of the concertos of Haydn, Saint-Saens, Schumann, Dvorak, Dalo and, in particular, his incomparable performance of Bach’s suites for cello solo, which cellists had almost never played in public before him . These seemingly dry works under his bow sparkled with life and captured not only musicians, but also a wide audience of listeners.”
Approximately 1906 is the creation of the famous trio Cortot – Thibault – Casals. ” How many trips across Europe! How much joy we got from friendship and music !” Casals recalled.
During the First World War, Casals lived in Paris, but in 1920 he moved to Barcelona, where he organized his own symphony orchestra and performed in it as a conductor.
Outstanding performers from different countries came to the capital of Catalonia to play with Casals and accompanied by his orchestra.
Casals was democratic all his life. He warmly welcomed the establishment in Spain at 1931 years of the republican system. The news of the fascist coup on July 18, 1936 caught Casals rehearsing Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony “Since I don’t know when we’ll meet again, I suggest you play the symphony to the end before parting,” Casals turned to the orchestra. Until the last days of the existence of the republic, the musician remained in Barcelona.
After the fall of the republic, he left his homeland and settled in the south of France, in the small town of Prades. Since then, Casals has not been seen on public concert stages for a long time. Despite any promises, he did not agree to break his musical silence and perform where the Nazis were in charge.
The defeat of fascism as a result of World War II brought bright hopes to the artist.
He believed in reason, in human dignity, and therefore again gave his cello to people. With a stunning triumph, his concerts were held in the cities of England and France. He had no doubt now that the countries of the West would restore the freedoms trampled upon by the Francoists in his native land. And he appeals to politicians, public organizations, representatives of the artistic intelligentsia…
Alas, all was in vain. Then he publishes the following statement: “ My friends who were expelled from Fascist Spain did their best to serve the Allied cause during the war. Yet even now, after the victory in Europe, many allied governments continue to maintain relations with Francke, although his strength is based on the strength of fascist weapons, and his regime causes the same horrors for the eradication of which the war was fought and won.
As long as these conditions remain, I cannot, out of solidarity with my unfortunate compatriots, whose suffering continues even now, play in any of these countries … »
This was said in 1946. And Casals’ cello fell silent again. He was offered any conditions and fees, but he was unshakable. He experienced a truly irresistible trial in 1950, the world celebrated the bicentenary of the death of Johann Sebastian Bach. The whole creative life of Casals passed, one might say, under the Bach star. How many invitations he received at that time from different countries, but he refused all of them.
And that’s when many famous musicians themselves decided to go to Prades to Casals to organize the Bach Festival there. And it really was a magnificent holiday, when violinists I. Szigeti and I. Stern, pianists R. Serkin and Y. Istomin, cellist P. Tortellier, violist V. Primroz and other famous masters played next to Casals. Musical meetings in this city have become traditional.
Casals closed himself in Prada, categorically rejecting all offers of concerts.
Only twice did he break his vow. For the first time, on October 24, 1958, he took part in the International Congress dedicated to the United Nations Day. He conditioned his participation by the publication of a statement calling for peace, for an end to nuclear testing. The second time was in November 1961, when he spoke at the White House of US President Kennedy, again to express his concern for the fate of the world “Never before has mankind faced such a critical moment, and the desire to achieve universal peace is a common dream. Everyone must do everything in his power to achieve this goal, ”he wrote to the president. His performance impressed those present.
In 1956, Casals, together with his wife Martita – a faithful assistant and friend – first visited her homeland and his mother’s homeland – Puerto Rico.
Soon the Casals couple settled in the Puerto Rican capital of San Juan, where festivals were also organized.
The mastery courses conducted by Casals during the last decades of his life in Switzerland (Zermatt), Italy (Siena), Japan, the USA and other countries were very popular.
Cellists from different countries G. Sudzha, E. Feuerman, D. Alsanyan, M. Eisenberg, M. Rostropovich, A. Borisyak, R. Garbuzova, P. Fournier, P. Tortelier, B. Gringauz, L. Parnas, K. Banting.
His compatriot, an excellent cellist Gaspar Cassado, systematically and longer than others studied with Casals. “ Unforgettable impressions ,” recalls Cassado, “ left the playing of Casals from a musical point of view. The study of each new work was constantly associated with his methodical work aimed at recreating the nature of the music being studied. This is what made him an unsurpassed cellist… I remember how, as a student, I was somehow perplexed while studying one of the concertos at the lessons, it seemed to me that, finally, I had completely mastered the secret of its performance; after some time, I went to the maestro’s concert – he played the same piece, but in a completely different way .