Bach Chronicles #5--Pablo Casals
Pablo Casals, by age 13, had made a name for himself as a cellist in Barcelona. He was playing 7 nights a week at Café Tost and had become known as “el nen,” “the kid.” On one eventful Sunday, his father Carlos and he were walking the Ramblas, down near the waterfront and the Christopher Columbus monument. It was an extraordinary day because Carlos had just purchased the first adult size cello for young Pau. Pablo preferred the Catalan version of his name, Pau.
After purchasing the cello, father and son proceeded to look through the local used music shops, tangled around the winding sidestreets off the Ramblas. They were in search for any kind of music written for cello. On Carrer Ample, a 500 meter-long stretch off the Ramblas, described today as “a place that sums up the spirit of Barcelona” they found a gold mine. Eric Siblin, in his brilliant book The Cello Suites states that they found this: “A tobacco-colored coverpage inscribed with fanciful black lettering (in French): Six Sonates ou Suites pour Violincelle Seul by Johann Sebastian Bach”
Siblin, who tells more about Casals remarkable life as a musician and political activist states that Casals took this music home and proceeded to practice it every day for twelve years, before he had the feeling he was ready to present it publicly for the first time in 1901. Around this time, life expectancy in Spain was a mere 35! Casals’ life was tightly woven into the political unrest of Spain, and in particular the Catalan region. And the Cello Suites, described as a “sanctuary” by Yo-Yo Ma, were certainly sacred ground for Casals who enchanted the world with his passion, dedication, humanity and musicianship. Casals was much heralded in his 96-year long life and is correctly credited with bringing the Cello Suites to public attention and great notoriety.
Learning more about this as I dig deeper, I’m humbled to play this music at all—especially on the banjo. We play what we must! Advance pre-orders for my newest recording “American Bach Revisited” are now available at: https://michaeljmiles.bandcamp.com/album/american-bach-revisited.
