Intérpretes

Pablo Casals (1876-1973)

O grande violoncelista espanhol, nasceu em 29 de dezembro de 1876 em Vendrell, uma pequena cidade catalã a 60 km de Barcelona e viveu até os 97 anos. O pai de Pablo, Charles, era organista na igreja de Vendrell, e lecionava canto e piano. Foi ele que ensinou a Pablo suas primeiras lições de canto e composição. A mãe de Pablo, Señora Pilar Defillo de Casals, era natural de Puerto Rico, de ascendência catalã e tinha um avô alemão. O nome Casals é de pura origem catalã, datando do Sec.16. Nessa época as pessoas adotavam ou recebiam nomes apropriados às suas profissões ou a algum detalhe de suas atividades diárias. Os Casals da Catalonia eram considerados nobres, de casta superior e assim eram respeitados pelos cidadãos locais. A mãe de Pablo deu à luz onze filhos, sendo nove meninos e duas meninas. É interessante notar que quase todos morreram antes de chegar aos 50 anos, ainda que Pablo Casals tenha vivido até os 97. Pablo começo a aprender piano ao 4 anos de idade, assim como o violino e a flauta. Seu pai também o ensinou a tocar orgão. Mesmo aos 5 anos Pablo cantava no coro da igreja, que era dirigido por seu pai, e já compunha música. Com apenas seis anos de idade Casals era acompanhante do côro e era capaz de transpor para o órgão qualquer peça musical, não importava o quão difícil fosse! Faleceu em 22 de outubro de 1973.

Veja a discografia de Casals no SonyClassical.

Apesar de seu nome parecer francês, Jacqueline Du Pré era inglesa, nascida a 26/Jan/45 em Oxford e falecida a 19/out/87 em Londres. Usava um Stradivari (1673) que, após sua morte passou a pertencer a Lynn Harrell, que a ele deu o nome de Jacqueline du Pré. Entre seus outros instrumentos estavam o Stradivari Davidoff de 1712, que ela deixou a Yo-Yo Ma e também um Goffriller. Diagnosticada com esclerose múltipla aos 28 anos, Du Pré combateu esse mal e permaneceu em atividade até 1972, vindo a falecer aos 42 anos. Jacqueline Du Pré era casada desde 1967 com o pianista e maestro Daniel Baremboin. Instrumentista prodígio, começou a tocar o Concerto de Elgar aos 13 anos através de seu professor, William Pleeth. Ela memorizou o concerto em apenas 4 dias e, de acordo com Pleeth, passou a tocá-lo impecavelmente. Seu recital de debut foi no Wigmore Hall em 1961 e imediatamente tornou-se uma sensação na Inglaterra e fora dela. O debut novaiorquino veio em 14 de maio de 1965, tocando o Concerto de Elgar com a BBC Synphony Orchestra conduzida por Antal Dorati. Nessa ocasião um crítico do New Yok Times escreveu: "Ela tocou como um anjo, com extraordinário calor e sensibilidade." Com a idade de 17 anos, o Elgar Concerto tornou-se a assinatura de Jacqueline Du Pré. Ela tocou esse concerto mais do que qualquer outro e vendeu centenas de milhares de discos.

During her far-too-brief career, cellist Jacqueline du Pré exhibited an almost oracular power of communication. Her performances bristled with the kind of brilliant electricity that could change lives and convert listeners to a lifelong love of music. Happily, it's possible to experience a sense of that power from the recordings du Pré completed before multiple sclerosis halted her career as a performer in the early 1970s. This set provides a splendid portrait--at bargain price--of du Pré's unmistakable personality: the astonishingly original yet convincing phrasing, raw energy, and ability to make her instrument sound uncannily like a human voice (du Pré was after all a favored student of Mstislav Rostropovich). Her rendition of Haydn's Concerto in C is clearly cast in a romantic--and nowadays perhaps unfashionable--mold, yet du Pré's big, bold tone carries the musical line forward with exhilarating presence. It's a demeanor that proves especially reassuring for the quirkily mercurial inventions of Boccherini. Yet du Pré most indelibly leaves her signature on the work that became her hallmark, Edward Elgar's E Minor Concerto, grafting a deeply personal level of expression onto the score's rich post-World War I melancholy. In the Schumann, du Pré makes an eloquently passionate protagonist. A similar sense of excitement is to be heard in Dvorák's Concerto--performed near the end of her career--above all in the flame of inspiration she evidently sparks from the orchestra in the serene close of its slow movement.

Maurice Gendron was born in Nice, France in 1920. His mother played the violin in a theater orchestra, and Maurice received violin lessons at the age of four. He disliked the violin, and took up the cello a year later at the age of five. He played a quarter-size cello, and like it very much. His first cello teacher, Stepane Odero took him to hear Feuermann play, and the ten-year-old Gendron was moved to tears by the experience. He graduated from the Nice Conservatory with first prize at the age of 14, in 1934. Three years later he want to Paris to study with Gerard Hekking. He lived on a shoestring, and his health suffered so much that he was classifed exempt from military service in WWII. However he joined the Resistance, and refused to perform in Germany. After the war, he made his solo debut at Wigmore Hall in London, December 2, 1945. Benjamin Britten was his accompanist, and they performed sonatas by Faure and Debussy. It was also in December of 1945 that Gendron gave the European premier performance of Prokofiev's First Cello Concerto, with the London Philharmonic and Walter Susskind. Gendron would joke about it saying, "That's how I began my career. No one wanted to hear Maurice Gendron, but they all wanted to hear Prokofiev!" Gendron's New York debut was at a memorial concert for Feuermann, where he performed the Dvorak and Haydn D Major Concertos. He formed a string trio with Yehudi and Hepzibah Menuhin that lasted for 25 years. Gendron is unique in being the only solo cellist conducted by Pablo Casals on a commercial recording. They did the Haydn D Major, and the Boccherini B Flat with the Lamoureaux Orchestra, from original scores discovered by Gendron in the Dresden State Library. Gendron became a professor at the Paris Conservatoire in 1970, and has taught at other music schools around Europe. He is admired especially for his interpretations of French music. [desculpe-nos por enquanto; este texto será traduzido em breve]

Piatigorsky was born in Ekaterinoslav (Dnetropetrovosk) Russia on April 17, 1903. He studied violin and piano as a young child with his father, until he saw and heard the cello at an orchestra concert, and became determined to be a cellist. He constructed a "play cello" of two sticks, a long stick for the cello, and a short stick for the bow, and enjoyed pretending to perform. When he was seven years old he was finally given a real cello, and began his remarkable life as a cellist. A student of Klengel told him he had no talent whatsoever, and to stay clear of the cello. Piatigorsky ignored the unwanted advice, and won a scholarship to the Moscow Conservatory, where he studied with Gubariov, von Glehn (who had studied with Davidov) and Brandoukov. While studying at the conservatory he earned money for his family by playing in local cafes. The October Russian Revolution occured with he was only 13 years old, and he began playing in a string quartet shortly thereafter, appropriately named the "Lenin Quartet." At the age of 15 he was engaged to be the principal cellist of the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow. Piatigorsky owned two Stradivarius cellos: the "Batta" dated 1714, and the "Baudiot" dated 1725. He died August 6, 1976 from cancer, and was buried in Brentwood Cemetary, near Los Angeles. [desculpe-nos por enquanto; este texto será traduzido em breve]

Après avoir obtenu en 1930 un premier prix au Conservatoire de Paris, Paul Tortelier fait ses débuts l'année suivante à Paris. Soliste de l'Orchestre de l'opéra de Monte-Carlo (1935-1937), il part ensuite aux États-Unis, où Serge Koussevitski l'engage comme soliste de l'Orchestre symphonique de Boston (1937-1939). De retour à Paris, il occupe la même fonction au sein de l'Orchestre de la Société des Concerts du Conservatoire (1945-1947). Sa carrière de soliste commence réellement en 1947, à la suite d'un concert qu'il donne à Londres sous la direction de sir Thomas Beecham, où il obtient un vif succès. Il se produit dès lors en Europe et aux États-Unis, tant en soliste qu'en formation de musique de chambre (formant notamment un trio avec Isaac Stern et Arthur Rubinstein). Professeur au Conservatoire de Paris de 1957 à 1969, il donne également des cours d'interprétation très recherchés des jeunes solistes. Il a effectué de nombreux enregistrements (dont les Suites pour violoncelle solo de Bach) qui témoignent de la souplesse de son jeu et de la poésie de son phrasé. [desculpe-nos por enquanto; este texto será traduzido em breve]

Ennio Bolognini was born in Buenos Aires in 1893, to a musical family. His father was an amateur cellist and a close friend of the conductor Toscannini, who became Ennio's godfather. Bolognini studied first with his father, and later with Jose Garcia, Casal's teacher, who was now living in Buenos Aires. When Ennio was still only fifteen he won first prize in a Spanish/American cello contest, and was awarded a fine cello made by Luigi Rovatti. While still a teen-ager Ennio had the privilege of performing "The Swan" with Saint-Saens himself at the piano; and the Richard Strauss cello sonata, also with the composer. In 1923 Bolognini emigrated to the United States. Interestingly the reason he moved to the United States was to be the sparring partner for Luis Firpo in preparation for his prize-fight with Jack Dempsey. Bolognini was not only an amazingly fine cellist, but also a champion boxer, and a licensed airplane pilot. He flew his own private plane, and was once a professional stunt flyer. He was co-founder of the American Civil Air Patrol, and trained cadets to fly B-29 bombers in World War II. He was a modern day Renaissance man, an athlete, gourmet, gambler, speaking Hebrew, Greek, Japanese, Hungarian, Russian and 15 different Italian dialects. Bolognini was well known for his fiery temper and impulsive behavior. When he was principal cellist of the Chicago Symphony (he always took his dog to rehersals), he served as interpreter for Glazounov, who was appearing as a guest conductor. Glazounov, overcome by stage fright, came to Ennio instead of mounting the podium, and spoke with him anxiously for a few minutes, as the audience waited. Later, Bolognini was accused of trying to hog the stage, and he became angry and resigned from the Symphony. He lived in Las Vegas from 1951 to his death in 1979, where he founded the Las Vegas Philharmonic Orchestra. He was a wonderful guitarist, and could also play flamenco music on the cello, as if it were a guitar. Casals praised Bolognini as the greatest cello talent he had ever heard in his life. Feuermann said that Bolognini was a better cellist than Casals, Piatigorsky or himself. Bolognini's cello is now at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C. It is unique, in that there are 51 signatures inscribed on it, including those of Kreisler, Heiftz, Stern, Szigeti, Liberace, Jack Dempsey, Bruno Walter, Janos Starker, Eugene Ormandy, Miklos Rozsa, etc. Everywhere he went, he asked his friends to sign his cello.