The Orquestra Pau Casals (Spanish: Orquesta Pau Casals) was established by Pablo Casals (sometimes known as Pau Casals) in the early 1920s in Barcelona, with the debut performance taking place October 13, 1920. There had been other orchestras in Barcelona, but none that played with any enduring success. [1] The orchestra was managed by a group of Casals' friends including Felip Capdevila and Casals' second wife Francesca. [2]
Casals hired musicians full-time and invested his savings to balance the accounts. He spent a great deal of effort in working with the orchestra and raising the level of technical accomplishment, so much so that he suffered a "nervous breakdown" at one point and had to rest for several months. However, after nine years of training, the Orquestra Pau Casals became recognized as one of the finer orchestras in Europe, attracting high quality soloists and guest conductors. Casals conducted the orchestra himself, and promoted it by playing with it exclusively as a soloist in Barcelona and refusing to play at other venues in the area. [3]
Casals organized his orchestral performances to appeal to the working-class people of Catalonia, and workmen and their families often attended, listening to Mozart, Beethoven and other classical repertoire. [4] Dedicated to the ideal that everyone should appreciate and support music, Casals also founded the Associacio Obrera de Concerts (Working Men's Concert Association) in Barcelona with annual dues of six pesetas which served as a subscription to his concert series. [5] [6]
The orchestra recorded Beethoven's First and Fourth Symphonies in November 1929. [7] Other recordings are also available. [8]
The Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125, is a choral symphony, the final complete symphony by Ludwig van Beethoven, composed between 1822 and 1824. It was first performed in Vienna on 7 May 1824. The symphony is regarded by many critics and musicologists as Beethoven's greatest work and one of the supreme achievements in the history of music. One of the best-known works in common practice music, it stands as one of the most frequently performed symphonies in the world.
Isaac Stern was an American violinist.
An orchestra is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families, including
Pau Casals i Defilló, usually known in English by his Spanish name Pablo Casals, was a Catalan and Puerto Rican cellist, composer, and conductor. He is generally regarded as the pre-eminent cellist of the first half of the 20th century and one of the greatest cellists of all time. He made many recordings throughout his career of solo, chamber, and orchestral music, including some as conductor, but he is perhaps best remembered for the recordings of the Bach Cello Suites he made from 1936 to 1939. He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1963 by President John F. Kennedy.
Gustav Heinrich Ernst Martin Wilhelm Furtwängler was a German conductor and composer. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest symphonic and operatic conductors of the 20th century. He was a major influence for many later conductors, and his name is often mentioned when discussing their interpretative styles.
The Palau de la Música Catalana is a concert hall in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. Designed in the Catalan modernista style by the architect Lluís Domènech i Montaner, it was built between 1905 and 1908 for the Orfeó Català, a choral society founded in 1891 that was a leading force in the Catalan cultural movement that came to be known as the Renaixença. It was inaugurated on 9 February 1908.
Paul Tortelier was a French cellist and composer.
Itzhak Perlman is an Israeli-American violinist, conductor, and music teacher. Perlman has performed worldwide, and throughout the United States, in venues that have included a State Dinner at the White House honoring Queen Elizabeth II, and at President Barack Obama's inauguration. He has conducted the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Westchester Philharmonic. In 2015, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. He has received 16 Grammy Awards, including a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, and four Emmy Awards.
Eugene George Istomin was an American pianist. He was a winner of the Leventritt Award and recorded extensively as a soloist and in a piano trio in which he collaborated with Isaac Stern and Leonard Rose.
Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli was an Italian classical pianist. He is considered one of the greatest pianists of the twentieth century. According to The New York Times, he was perhaps the most reclusive, enigmatic and obsessive among the handful of the world's legendary pianists.
Rudolf Serkin was a Bohemian-born American pianist. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest Beethoven interpreters of the 20th century.
The Barcelona Symphony Orchestra and National Orchestra of Catalonia is a symphony orchestra based in Barcelona, Spain. Since April 1999, the Orchestra has had its headquarters at L'Auditori. Prior to that, from its foundation to 1998, the orchestra was resident at the Palau de la Música Catalana.
Juan Manén was a Spanish violinist and composer, born in Barcelona.
Albert Edward Sammons CBE was an English violinist, composer and later violin teacher. Almost self-taught on the violin, he had a wide repertoire as both chamber musician and soloist, although his reputation rests mainly on his association with British composers, especially Elgar. He made a number of recordings over 40 years, many of which have been re-issued on CD.
Francisco Casanovas Tallardá was a Spanish conductor, composer, pedagogue, clarinetist, saxophonist and flautist.
Stephanie Ann Chase is an American classical violinist.
The Portuguese Chamber Orchestra (OCP) was founded on July 5, 2007 and its debut took place on September 13, 2007, with the opening concert of the 2007/2008 season at the Grand Auditorium of Centro Cultural de Belém, in Lisbon. The programme included the Overture to Der Schauspieldirektor by Mozart, the Symphony No. 6 by Schubert, and the Ballet suite Pulcinella by Stravinsky. The head office of OCP is in Oeiras, Portugal.
Enric Casals i Defilló, brother of Pablo Casals, was a Catalan violinist, composer and conductor.
Leonora Milà Romeu is a Catalan pianist and composer.
The Beethoven concert of 22 December 1808 was a benefit concert held for Ludwig van Beethoven at the Theater an der Wien in Vienna that featured the public premieres of Beethoven's Fifth and Sixth Symphonies, the Fourth Piano Concerto and the Choral Fantasy. This concert, then called an Akademie, occurred in a very cold hall and lasted for approximately four hours. Its featured performers were an orchestra, chorus, vocal soloists, and the composer was featured as soloist at the piano. Beethoven biographer Barry Cooper refers to the concert, in terms of its content, as the "most remarkable" of Beethoven's career.
| General | |
|---|---|
| National libraries | |
| Other | |
