Pau Casals

Pablo (Pau) Casals was a great musician and great human being. He is best known as a great 'cellist and he certainly was that but the arrival of Mstislav Rostropovich meant for me at least that he wasn't necessarily the greatest 'cellist of all time. 

For me, Casals's conducting was equal to his playing in a way Rostropovich's conducting was not really. I base this opinion on a relatively small number of recordings made of him in his advanced old age. They are astonishingly vital in the main although there are one or two that sound as if he was feeling his age. 

I can attest personally to this energy of his on the podium in his last years because I attended a performance of his oratorio 'El pessebre' which he conducted at the Royal Festival Hall on September 29th, 1963 at the age of 87. 

I remember him coming onto the stage looking like a corpse and one worried whether he would make it to the rostrum. He did however and once he had started the performance he became rejuvu=inated and re-invigorated, throwing himself around like any young 'maestro furibondo.' 

After the performance (his work wasn't bad by the way), I went with a crowd of admirers to the stage door to see him leave. After a long while he emerged with his much younger pretty wife, looking like death not very warmed up. His face had a blue tinge and he walked and got into his limousine (maybe one of those old Daimlers I fancy) with difficulty or so it seemed.  He was to live another 10 years and to continue making some of his best recordings as conductor at Marlboro in that period.