Pablo Casals had an enormous impact on the world. The powerful force of his musical personality and the conviction with which he communicated his humanitarian ideals went hand in hand. In my teaching, and in a number of projects I’m pursuing without view to publication just yet, I have been exploring what is going on in his cello playing in detail. Because of the communicative power of his musical vision it is perhaps easy not to see just how extraordinary the actual cello playing is.
I’m struck by the way today’s cellists often characterise Casals’ playing as rather crude and rough (of course, it does have these qualities when he wants them) when what I hear – and see – is astonishing clarity and precision of technical vision and expressive communication. This page presents just a few quotations from some of the musicians who encountered his playing at first hand. (The quotations from Ysaÿe and Menuhin below are taken from the opening tributes in Corredor’s Conversations with Casals, 1957, where you can find many more...)
Joseph Szigeti:
… the witchery of what is probably the greatest art among all string players.
Yehudi Menuhin:
The image which is evoked in my mind by the great master Pablo Casals is that of a jeweller. His art and his nature show qualities characteristic of his vocation. An almost microscopic searching into the depths of detail, an unshakeable patience, a sense of belonging to a land, to a tradition, to a concept, to a way of living which is deeply rooted, almost botanical, a calm persistence bordering on stubbornness, like the resistance of plants against the cruelties of Nature; all these things testify to the presence, in this world of small men and faint hearts, of a being whose simplicity, grandeur and integrity restore our faith in human nature.
David Oistrakh:
Casals’ mastery is colossal. It seems that the first blossoming of the creative talent of the great artist is still continuing. I think it is the only instance in the entire history of our art. Perfect intonation, free movement of the hand along the fingerboard, the greatest refinement and polish of any bowings – that is a real miracle. I have never before seen anything like it.
Felix Galimir:
Whenever he plays Bach, it is the most natural function. He plays the Bach suites like I breathe, or sleep, and it sounds so – effortless seems a bad word – but it’s the most… effortless way of playing without being non-committal…. I personally have always considered him the symbol of the noblest and the most elegant string playing that I have ever heard. In watching him at close range it is amazing to find how much wisdom is in this playing, to get this finesse.
Eugene Ysaÿe:
Casals is truly sensitive and profound, a musician in the deepest sense of the word. Not a single detail is neglected, everything is defined with delicacy, knowledge and discrimination. In him action is the direct outcome of thought and is true, vibrant and deeply moving.
