¡Hola!
The centerpiece of today’s Noontime Concert on The Classical Network will be a chamber music rarity by the great Spanish cellist Gaspar Cassadó (1897-1966). Cassadó had the advantage of having been born into a musical household in Barcelona. His father, a composer, organist, and piano salesman, shepherded his development and even moved the family to Paris so that he and his elder brother, Augustin, a violinist, could take advantage of the artistic climate there.
At the age of nine, Cassadó was heard in recital by Pablo Casals, and though Casals was at the height of his career and very much in demand, he took the boy on as one of only three pupils. Needless to say, Casals’ influence made a deep impression on the young cellist. Cassadó also studied composition with Maurice Ravel and Manuel de Falla.
Like the violinist Fritz Kreisler, Cassadó remained sheepish about some of his original miniatures in the styles of other composers and gained a degree of notoriety when it was discovered that many of the works he had been attributing to others, such as Frescobaldi, Boccherini, and Schubert, were in fact his own.
Casals performed and conducted a number of Cassadó’s acknowledged works, and teacher and student often appeared together in concert. However, with the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in 1936, Casals fled the country, effectively abandoning his career, while Cassadó chose to continue to perform extensively. Though Cassadó stayed out of Spain until after World War II and performed only once in fascist Germany, Casals publicly disavowed him in a letter to the New York Times. It’s thought that this irreparably damaged Cassadó’s career, though the two cellists later reconciled.
Among Cassadó’s most frequently performed works are his “Rapsodia Catalana,” his Suite for Solo Cello, and “Requiebros,” which was championed by Casals.
We will hear Cassadó’s Piano Trio in C major, performed by artists of the Lenape Chamber Ensemble, from a concert given at Delaware Valley University on July 22. Also on the program is Mozart’s Horn Quintet in E-flat major and Tchaikovsky’s string sextet, “Souvenir de Florence.”
The Lenape Chamber Ensemble is made up of hornist David Jolley, violinists Nancy Bean and Cyrus Beroukhim, violists Catherine Beeson and Brett Deubner, cellist Arash Amini, and pianist Marcantonio Barone.
The ensemble’s next concerts – featuring works by Haydn, Poulenc, and Schubert – will take place at 8:15 p.m. on March 2 at Upper Tinicum Lutheran Church, 188 Upper Tinicum Church Road, in Upper Black Eddy, PA, and at 3 p.m. on March 4 at Delaware Valley University’s Life Sciences Auditorium, 700 E. Butler Street and Route 611, in Doylestown. To learn more, visit lenapechamberensemble.org.
For today, I hope you’ll join me for music by Mozart, Cassadó, and Tchaikovsky, at 12:00 EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.
Casals performs Cassadó’s “Requiebros:”