Release Date: 07 January 2000
Label: Naxos - Historical / Naxos Historical
Packaging Type: Jewel Case
No of Units: 2
Barcode: 636943191521
Genres: Classical
Composer/Series: BACH, J.S.
Description
J. S. Bach (1685-1750):Suites for unaccompanied CelloJ. S. Bach (transc. Siloti):Adagio from Toccata, Adagio and fugue in C major, BWV 564'Komm, S?â??sser Tod', BWV 478Andante from Sonata No. 2 for unaccompanied violin, BWV 1003Air from Suite No. 3 in D major, BWV 1068Musette (Gavottes I and II from English Suite No. 6 in D major, BWV 811(J. S. Bach transc. Pollain)It was a great day for music when, in around 1890, a Catalan boy only just into his teens found an edition of some unfamiliar pieces in a Barcelona music shop. The boy was Pau (or Pablo) Casals and his find was a set of six suites for unaccompanied cello by Johann Sebastian Bach. Today, when Bach's music is daily currency, it is hard to think of a time when much of it was unknown. Felix Mendelssohn had begun a Bach revival earlier in the nineteenth century but such works as the Sonatas and Partitas for unaccompanied violin or the Suites for unaccompanied cello were considered outlandish; composers, including Schumann, even wrote piano accompaniments to them. Cello playing itself had not advanced greatly since the days of Boccherini. The invention of the spike or endpin had freed the body of the instrument from being gripped between the knees, so that it resonated more freely; but some players were still operating in the old way, without a spike. Worst of all, the bowing arm was restricted. 'We were taught to play a with a stiff arm and obliged to keep a book under the armpit,' said Casals, the man who changed all that.He was born on 29th December 1876 in Vendrell, a little town where his father was organist and choirmaster. 'I owe nearly all my talent at music to the influence of my father,' Casals wrote. 'As soon as I could walk he took me to all the services at the church, so that the Gregorian chant, the chorales and the organ voluntaries became part of myself and of my daily life. Carlos Casals taught Pau to sing, play the piano and organ and even compose; at six the boy had mastered the violin well enough to play a solo in public. Fascinated by a broom handle strung like a cello, used by an itinerant Catalan musician, he described it to his father, who built him a little cello using a gourd for a sound-box. 'On this home-made contrivance I learnt to play the many songs my father composed, and the popular songs which reached the village from the outside world.' At eleven he heard a real cello, which confirmed it was the instrument for him. His father bought him a small cello and gave him some lessons; and soon he began studying at the Municipal School of Music in Barcelona. While playing in a cafe trio to pay for his keep, he was heard by the composer Albeniz. Soon he had an ensemble of seven at a grander cafe - and it was while he and his father were looking for music for this band to play that he found the Bach Suites. He met Sarasate and with Albeniz's help moved to Madrid, found a patron and became Queen Maria Cristina's favourite musician, studying
Tracklisting
Lotte Lehmann
Lotte Lehmann
Lehmann:Ulanowsky
Lehmann
Lehmann
Landowska
Kriesler
Kreisler
Katchen/Casals
Pablo Casals
