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CASALS: THE MUSIC AND THE MAN Complete piano work

Getting to know the unknown

Jordi Camell, piano

INTRODUCTION

Revealing a hidden secret - that's the main idea behind this project. The premiere of the complete piano work by Pau Casals is a clear attempt to salvage our heritage of hitherto unknown Catalan music and set things to rights.

Pau Casals (1876-1973) is renowned as one of the best and most gifted cellists of all time and also, from a human point of view, as a great figure who symbolised and defended, against all obstacles, the ideals of peace and fraternity at the important and historic time (the history of the 20th century) he happened to live in. However, people were still largely unaware of him as a composer and his work had not been published.

Cover of the CD published by Columna Música Casals playing a Prelude and Fugue by Bach.

This work is being carried out by Jordi Camell (www.jordicamell.com), a pianist born in Llorenç del Penedès (just seven kilometres from where Casals was born), who made his debut performance as a pianist at the Pau Casals House Museum, who has reviewed the manuscripts for the first publication by Editorial de Música Boileau in Barcelona and has recorded this complete work for World Premiere Recordings by Columna Música. In the text for the booklet accompanying this recently released CD, Jordi Camell says:

I was extremely excited to hold in my hands for the first time the unpublished work for piano by Casals that was given to me by Núria Ballester, director of the Museu Pau Casals (I can never thank her enough). Excitement

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caused in part by having been born seven kilometres from Casals’ birth place (an anecdotal fact and no merit on my part) but also by the shock and surprise in discovering a piece of music whose existence was completely unknown to me, increasing even further my admiration for the Master.

During the process of reviewing the work and performing it on the piano, the

initial impact resulted in a marvellous musical revelation, but finding myself alone exposed to the unknown, without references or intermediates, seemed also somewhat agitating. When converting unpublished scores into sound, one feels that very touching sense of creation, which musicians do not often perceive, bombarded as they usually are by an avalanche of prior information.

Jordi Camell at the piano

We are dealing with a piece of music close to central European 19th Century

romanticism, surprisingly distant from the language of our country’s folkloric roots or French music of that time. Harmonically rich, overflowing in counterpoints, it isn’t salon music and is well beyond being simple accompanied melody; intimate delicate and sensitive music that contradicts the stereotype image of an impulsive and temperamental Casals. It’s as if, through the piano, he found the peace, rest and introspection that served to balance his turbulent professional and personal life.

What would have happened if Casals hadn’t become a real genius at the cello? If he hadn’t been so close to the works of art he performed (this is usual among many musicians who pause reverentially in front of a blank sheet of paper before writing any notes), would he have developed even further his compositional talent? We will never know. But from an artist who wrote this music for piano without it being his main instrument, we could have foreseen a splendid future as a composer.

In short, a real luxury for the present write, and joy for being able to present this fascinating music for the first time to the public.

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Jordi Camell first played the complete piano work of Pau Casals on the 21st of June 2012 as part of the 32nd Pau Casals Festival of Sant Salvador. This concert was broadcast live by Catalunya Música. Some links that refer to this complete work: http://elperiodicodecatalunyacastellano.kioskoymas.com/epaper/viewer.aspx

http://www.revistamusical.cat/?p=3684

http://www.enderrock.cat/noticia/7105/jordi/camell/toca/pau/casals

http://www.diverdi.com/portal/detalle.aspx?id=48861

http://www.diverdi.com/portal/noticia.aspx?id=4841

http://www.auditoripaucasals.cat/?p=4916

http://www.revistamusical.cat/?p=2768

http://www.culturapenedes.cat/2012/07/21/lobra-integra-pianistica-de-pau-casals-

avui-al-vendrell/

PROGRAMME

This recital lasts 1 hour 15 minutes without an interval. As a support for the multifaceted and fascinating life of the musician and composer, the project will be assisted by a visual montage created especially for the occasion. This video will be projected on a screen located just behind or next to the pianist and will include intertitles with images and phrases by Pau Casals as a leitmotif throughout the different musical sections. The bibliography used is as follows:

• Pau Casals. Music for Living. Pau Casals Foundation • Pau Casals. Joan Descals. March Editor • Pau Casals and Exile. Pau Casals Foundation • Conversations with Casals. J.M. Corredor. Biblioteca Selecta. Barcelona • Joys and Sorrows: Reflections by Pau Casals. Albert E. Kahn. Bosch Ed.

The show per se will start five minutes before the pianist appears on the stage, with a projection of the video clip "Allegro in F-sharp minor by Pau Casals", created by the team of Mònica Pagès. The pianist will come out on stage at the end of the video clip, over the credits, and will start to play, following the programme detailed below:

Pau Casals: Complete piano work

Cançó de bressol “Somni de l’infant” (Lullaby "Child's dream") Cançó de bressol (Lullaby)

Balada (Ballade) Alla Menuetto Instantània (Snapshot) Allegro en fa # menor (Allegro in F-sharp minor) Pàgina íntima (Intimate page) Petita masurca (Little mazurka)

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Quatre romances sense paraules (Four romances without words) Tempo di Mazurka Tempo giusto Andante espressivo e cantabile Agitato ed espressivo

Variacions sobre Cor de Pastors (Variations on Shepherd's Choir) (Jordi Camell, 2011, on a theme by Pau Casals)

Tres preludis orgànics (Three organic preludes) Andante Andante Moderato

Poema de bressol (Cradle poem) Prélude

Dues sardanes (Two sardana dances) (version for piano by Pau Casals. Arranged by Jordi Camell)

Sardana “Melodia Pelegrí” Sardana in C major

Casals, the free man