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Casals, Pablo (Pau Casals)
(1876-1973)
Spanish musician
Trained in composition, piano, and cello in
B
ARCELONA
and Brussels, this Catalan musi-
cian chose to concentrate on the cello and
was soon recognized for his mastery of the
instrument. He developed personal tech-
niques for extracting distinctive tones from
the instrument and acquired a reputation
as being among the finest musicians of his
time. Perhaps his most important achieve-
ment was his revival of the neglected cello
pieces of Johann Sebastian Bach, his favor-
ite composer. From the 1890s through the
end of World War I he toured widely, per-
forming in the United States as early as
1901. Far from being an introverted virtu-
oso, Casals formed a famous collaboration
with the pianist Alfred Cortot and the vio-
linist Jacques Thibaud, devoted time to
conducting, and took part in the establish-
ment of a music school in Paris. Proud of
his Catalan heritage, he became, in 1920,
the founder and conductor of the Orquestra
Pau Casals in Barcelona.
Appalled by the results of the S
PANISH
C
IVIL
W
AR
, he took up residence in France
in 1939, vowing never to return to Spain as
long as the regime of F
RANCISCO
F
RANCO
was in power. For a time he actually gave
up performing in public as a protest against
“fascism.” By 1950, however, he was again
performing and recording. In 1956 he
moved to P
UERTO
R
ICO
, where he estab-
lished an annual music festival that helped
focus international attention on this former
Spanish colony. He also became a celebrity
in the United States and performed at the
White House during the term of President
John F. Kennedy. Casals, true to his vow,
remained permanently in his new home,
dying two years before the fall of the dicta-
torship in Spain.
Castelar y Ripoll, Emilio
(1832-1899)
Spanish statesman
Born in C
ÁDIZ
and trained in philosophy
and law at the University of Madrid, Caste-
lar became a professor of history at this
institution. He soon earned a reputation as
an advocate of republicanism and was dis-
missed from his position in 1866 after a
particularly bold denunciation of I
SABELLA
II. Implicated in several conspiracies against
the monarchy during that year, he fled to
France and did not return until the deposi-
tion of the queen in 1868. During the polit-
ical turmoil of the next several years he
served in parliament and earned a reputa-
tion for moderate republicanism, even
accepting the short-lived kingship of
A
MADEO
I as a temporary measure. When
that monarch left Spain in 1873, Castelar
took part in the formation of the First
Republic, playing an active and valuable
role as minister of state. He emerged from
the faction struggles that disrupted the
republic to accede to the presidency in Sep-
tember 1873 but resigned in January of the
following year as the administration broke
down completely amid military coups,
regional insurgencies, and the outbreak of
a new Carlist war.
After A
LFONSO
XII took the throne in
1875, Castelar returned to parliament and
played a constructive moderating role dur-
ing the next decade. He continued to sup-
port such democratic principles as universal
suffrage and the abolition of slavery in the
Caribbean colonies. Castelar gradually
moved away from any short-term prospect
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