Pablo Casals: Schumann Cello Concerto (1/3)

Robert Schumann:
Cello Concerto in A minor, Op.129;
I. Nicht zu schnell (part 1/2) -

Pau Casals, cello;
Eugene Ormandy, Prades Festival Orchestra
(1953)

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It seems that Casals' recording of the Schumann Concerto has never been very popular, but to me this is simply an incredible and unique performance (at least if one likes this style of playing...)

[Btw, for those who know this recording only from the CD reissue, it may be interesting to note that they made two small cuts in the last movement...
see my comparison video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SLQUxAJD04 ]
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Category:

Music

Tags:

• Schumann
• Cello
• Concerto
• Casals
• Ormandy

[euryanteus]

Amazing, delightful, such an artist, thank you very much for posting.

[Vlaqq]

wonder who put 4 stars for that beauty - well, somebody who doesn't have ears or brains. this is absolutely unbeatable

[maxreger100]

But @conanima88,

this recording has been beloved and "popular" for 3 generations of musicians--including hundreds of cellists. It just throbs with energy, passion and instinctive artistry. While other recording will be forgotten, this is definitive. And not bad for a 77 year old!

[proSpiritofTruth]

Concpt is so important that whoever has the best concept on any worthwhile subject owns it. And so I would give that honour so far as cellos go in the last 100 years or so, to Pablo Casals.

[proSpiritofTruth]

I have only this year heard Pablo Casals for the first time.Until then the only cellist I had ever heard get the acoustic efficiency out of a cello that normally only violinists and sometimes viola players get out wasNZ celllist Ross Poples who must have been inspired by Casals. In turn I was inspired in 1972 to found my tenor saxohone tone on Pople's sound. So, more likely than not, I really owe even more to Pablo Casals, without knowing it until now. Casals like J S Bach are resonsible f/stop.

[ffkooks44]

Casals + Schumann = :D

[TheTradge]

@Tryceattack He does so in a lot of his recordings, in fact he's considered quite a grunting old man in his later recordings. I don't know whether it's involuntary or not, but he was getting very old by this point, he was born in 1876.

[Tryceattack]

Does anyone notice that he is making audible moans in this recording?

[Triosfrios]

His grandmother was Puerto Rican. 

[Heck104]

@Free4Catalonia La seva firma personal era Pablo, no Pau, ni tan sols Paz.

[skyd171]

@doumuu No, HE wrote the preface and SIGNED his name as Pablo Casals. Are you daft? How do these people access the internet?!

[doumuu]

@skyd171 Because somebody didn't do their research and didn't find out that even though he was being called "Pablo Casals", that was a spanish translation of his real catalan name: Pau Casals i Defilló.