“9 outstanding international chamber music performers gathered for 2 exceptional concerts!”
About the Catalan virtuoso Pablo Casals
Pablo Casals was born in Catalonia, Spain. At the age of four years old, he could play the violin, piano and flute. When he was eleven, he heard the cello for the first time and decided to dedicate himself to the instrument. Pablo Casals has played around the world as soloist or part of chamber music groups and orchestras, and performed for Queen Victoria and Theodore Roosevelt.
From the end of the Spanish Civil War, Pablo Casals exiled himself deliberately from Spain and lived in seclusion in Prades (a village located in the French Pyrénées, close to the Spanish border). As a mark of protest he withdrew from further public performance.
A Festival is born…
In 1950, however, encouraged by friends who impressed on him how much he was depriving a large audience of his musical genius, he decided in 1950 to give a series of concerts in Prades. He surrounded himself with the greatest musicians of his time. In an atmosphere of musical fervour and friendship, the Festival Pablo Casals of Prades was born.
The Festival is perpetuating the spirit of its founder into the 21st century: the most outstanding chamber musician faithfully return year after year to Prades, intent on sharing their passion for chamber music with audience in the extraordinary acoustics of the Abbey of St Michel de Cuxa. |