Beyond the realm of classical music, the Spaniard Pablo Casals is largely unknown. Inside that world, he was one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century. Although he both wrote and conducted, he is best known for a total mastery of the cello. His recordings with the instrument are considered by some critics as the finest of all time.
For Casals politics mattered. He became an outspoken critic of the Fascism sweeping Europe in the 1930s. When the murderous Fascist dictator, Francisco Franco, came to power in Spain following the Spanish Civil War (1936-39), Casals gathered his family and fled the country. They took up exile near Prades, France and were living there when Germany invaded the country in June 1940.
Amidst the hardship and despair of occupied France, they lived out the war years. Life became difficult. They often survived on a fare of boiled turnips and green beans. They had no coal and little wood for heating. Casals himself suffered from arthritis and malnutrition.
Then, without notice one morning, a German staff car arrived at the Casals villa. Three officers emerged. In describing the incident after the war, the maestro remembered, “They were big men in immaculate uniforms and gleaming boots.”
They had come with an invitation and an appeal: Would he play for the German people in Berlin? In consideration, they offered all material needs of him and his family. All the man had to do was play his cello.
Casals declined their offer. He said: “I refused to play in Germany — that birthplace of Beethoven and Bach that had been so dear to me —because I had the same idea about going to Germany that I had about going back to Franco’s Spain.”
The great German writer, Thomas Mann, winner of the Nobel Prize in literature, was later asked his ‘opinion’ of Pablo Casals. Mann replied: “I have no ‘opinion,’ only profound respect for a musician who, in a demented period of European history, came to the rescue of humanity’s honor.”
In 1950, Casals resumed his worldwide schedule of one-man performances. One in 1962 was at the White House. Many who were there that night described it as “an unforgettable occasion.”
Casals died in San Juan, Puerto Rico October 22, 1973, age 97.
• Retired attorney Jim Thomas lives in Atlanta. Email jmtlawyerspeak@yahoo. com
