The Casals Festival is a classical music event celebrated every year in
San Juan, Puerto Rico
San Juan (, , ; Spanish for "Saint John") is the capital city and most populous municipality in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the United States. As of the 2020 census, it is the 57th-largest city under the jur ...
, in honor of classical musician
Pablo Casals
Pau Casals i Defilló (Catalan: ; 29 December 187622 October 1973), usually known in English by his Castilian Spanish name Pablo Casals, .
Background
The festival was founded in 1956 by Pablo Casals. It was promoted by
Teodoro Moscoso
José Teodoro Moscoso Mora
Rico Puerto Rico. Noticel. June 15, 2012. Retrieved June 28, 2012. ...
and
David Ogilvy
David (; , "beloved one") (traditional spelling), , ''Dāwūd''; grc-koi, Δαυΐδ, Dauíd; la, Davidus, David; gez , ዳዊት, ''Dawit''; xcl, Դաւիթ, ''Dawitʿ''; cu, Давíдъ, ''Davidŭ''; possibly meaning "beloved one". w ...
with the objectives of changing the image of Puerto Rico and promoting tourism to the island during off-peak tourism time. After implementing Operation Bootstrap, Teodoro Moscoso employed advertiser David Ogilvy to propagate the image of a people engaged in a cultural renaissance.
[
] Teodoro Moscoso's decisive actions at critical junctures (such as his success in pushing tax exemptions and tourism in the late 1940s) and his personal persuasiveness, as with Pablo Casals, who at the age of 80 was persuaded to establish the Casals Festival at San Juan.
Pablo Casals
Pablo Casals (1876–1973), was born in Spain to a Puerto Rican mother
Pilar Defilló. He was a cello player and a supporter of the Spanish Republican Government and as such came to odds with Generalisimo
Francisco Franco
Francisco Franco Bahamonde (; 4 December 1892 – 20 November 1975) was a Spanish general who led the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalist forces in overthrowing the Second Spanish Republic during the Spanish Civil War ...
when the Spanish Republican Government was overthrown. Casals went to live in the French village of
Prades. There he established the
Prades Festival Prades may refer to:
Places
;France
* Prades, Ardèche, in the Ardèche ''département'', France
* Prades, Ariège, in the Ariège ''département'', France
* Prades, Haute-Loire, in the Haute-Loire ''département'', France
* Prades, Pyrénées-Or ...
. Casals visited Puerto Rico in 1955 and in 1956
In 1956, Casals moved permanently to the island. He was scheduled to inaugurate the festival which bears his name. The inauguration of the festival was held in the
University of Puerto Rico Theater. Casals, who was supposed to perform Suite Number 3 in C major, for solo cello by
Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach (28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his orchestral music such as the '' Brandenburg Concertos''; instrumental compositions such as the Cello Suites; keyboard w ...
, fell ill and suffered a
heart attack
A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which may tr ...
during the rehearsals. Even though Casals was hospitalized, the event went on as scheduled with the performance of
pianist
A pianist ( , ) is an individual musician who plays the piano. Since most forms of Western music can make use of the piano, pianists have a wide repertoire and a wide variety of styles to choose from, among them traditional classical music, ja ...
Rudolf Serkin
Rudolf Serkin (28 March 1903 – 8 May 1991) was a Bohemian-born Austrian-American pianist. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest Beethoven interpreters of the 20th century.
Early life, childhood debut, and education
Serkin was born in t ...
.
When the festival first started, the majority of the musicians contracted by the festival orchestra for the event came from the United States. Some of the exceptions to this practice were
Jesús María Sanromá
Jesús María Sanromá (November 7, 1902 – October 12, 1984) was a Puerto Rican pianist who is one of the 20th century's most accomplished and important pianists. In 1932 he gave the first North American performance of Maurice Ravel's Concerto ...
, Henry Hutchinson Sr., Fernando Valenti and
Narciso Figueroa and his brothers. By 1970, the majority of the members of the festival's orchestra were Puerto Ricans.
Participants
Amongst the musical directors who have participated in the festival besides Casals are
Mstislav Rostropovich
Mstislav Leopoldovich Rostropovich, (27 March 192727 April 2007) was a Russian cellist and conductor. He is considered by many to be the greatest cellist of the 20th century. In addition to his interpretations and technique, he was wel ...
,
Leonard Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein ( ; August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, pianist, music educator, author, and humanitarian. Considered to be one of the most important conductors of his time, he was the first America ...
,
Zubin Mehta
Zubin Mehta (born 29 April 1936) is an Indian conductor of Western classical music. He is music director emeritus of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra (IPO) and conductor emeritus of the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
Mehta's father was the foun ...
,
Eugene Ormandy
Eugene Ormandy (born Jenő Blau; November 18, 1899 – March 12, 1985) was a Hungarian-born American conductor and violinist, best known for his association with the Philadelphia Orchestra, as its music director. His 44-year association wit ...
, Sir
John Barbirolli
Sir John Barbirolli ( Giovanni Battista Barbirolli; 2 December 189929 July 1970) was a British conductor and cellist. He is remembered above all as conductor of the Hallé Orchestra in Manchester, which he helped save from dissolution in 194 ...
,
Yehudi Menuhin
Yehudi or Jehudi (Hebrew: יהודי, endonym for Jew) is a common Hebrew name:
* Yehudi Menuhin (1916–1999), violinist and conductor
** Yehudi Menuhin School, a music school in Surrey, England
** Who's Yehoodi?, a catchphrase referring to the v ...
and recently
Krzysztof Penderecki
Krzysztof Eugeniusz Penderecki (; 23 November 1933 – 29 March 2020) was a Polish composer and conductor. His best known works include ''Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima'', Symphony No. 3, his '' St Luke Passion'', ''Polish Requiem'', ''A ...
.
The artistic direccion of the festival has been under the following "maestros" at one time or another:
Jorge Mester
Jorge Mester (born April 10, 1935, Mexico City) is a Mexican conductor of Hungarian ancestry.
He has served as the artistic director for the Orquesta Filarmónica de Boca del Río, Veracruz, since it was founded in 2014.
Biography
He studied condu ...
,
Odón Alonso
Odón Alonso Ordás (28 February 1925 – 21 February 2011) was a Spanish conductor and composer, best known for his film scores.
Alonso was born at La Bañeza, León, Spain. He studied in Madrid, Siena, Salzburg and Vienna. His first engage ...
, Mstislav Rostropovich, Krzysztof Penderecki,
Elías López Sobá
Elías López Sobá (born in 1927) is a Puerto Rican classical music pianist and educator. Together with musical director Justino Diaz, Elias López Sobá has been co-directing the annual Casals Festival since 2010. Some sources considered him ...
, Justino Diaz and presently under Maximiano Valdés.
The Casals Festival today
Pablo Casals died on October 22, 1973. His widow
Marta Casals who was the president of the musical committee and Co‑Chairman of the Board and Music Director until 1979, undertook to continue the annual event. The festival has now taken on a new dimension with the appointment of pianist and scholar
Elías López-Sobá and bass/baritone
Justino Díaz
Justino Díaz (born January 29, 1940) is a Puerto Rican operatic bass-baritone. In 1963, Díaz won an annual contest held at the Metropolitan Opera of New York, becoming the first Puerto Rican to obtain such an honor and as a consequence, made ...
as artistic and musical directors. These two Puerto Rican artists have continued to follow the legacy of Pablo and Marta Casals, attracting many musicians for a series of concerts. The festival which is now held at the
Luis A. Ferre
Luis is a given name. It is the Spanish form of the originally Germanic name or . Other Iberian Romance languages have comparable forms: (with an accent mark on the i) in Portuguese and Galician, in Aragonese and Catalan, while is archaic ...
Performing Arts Center
Performing arts center/centre (see spelling differences), often abbreviated as PAC, is used to refer to:
* A multi-use performance space that is intended for use by various types of the performing arts, including dance, music and theatre.
:The ...
in San Juan, celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2006 with a performance of the
Philadelphia Orchestra
The Philadelphia Orchestra is an American symphony orchestra, based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. One of the " Big Five" American orchestras, the orchestra is based at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, where it performs its subscription ...
under the musical direction of Maestro
Christoph Eschenbach
Christoph Eschenbach (; born 20 February 1940) is a German pianist and conductor.
Early life
Eschenbach was born in Breslau, Germany (now Wrocław, Poland). His parents were Margarethe (née Jaross) and Heribert Ringmann. He was orphaned durin ...
.
The Prades Festival established by Casals in France in 1950 was renamed the Pablo Casals Festival in 1982.
See also
*
List of classical music festivals
The following is an incomplete list of classical music festivals – music festivals focused on classical music. Classical music is art music produced or rooted in the traditions of Western music (both liturgical and secular), and has long been pl ...
References
External links
Official Web Site
{{coord, 18.4471, N, 66.0683, W, type:event_region:PR, display=title
Classical music festivals in the United States
June events
Classical music festivals in Puerto Rico
1956 establishments in Puerto Rico
Music festivals established in 1956
San Juan, Puerto Rico