Physical
An extraordinary treasure trove of 80 live recordings, most of them previously unpublished, offering a remarkable new perspective on Pablo Casals’s musical legacy. Drawn from his personal archives and collections from Puerto Rico, Prades and Marlboro festivals, they include more than 30 works absent from his discography: Brahms’s first three Symphonies, Beethoven’s Symphonies Nos. 3, 5 and 9, Haydn’s C major Cello Concerto, Brahms’s Piano Trio No. 3 and Cello Sonata No. 1, as well as excerpts from St Matthew Passion and The Creation.
While around a third of the set is devoted to Casals the legendary cellist, two-thirds reveal an equally compelling and still under-appreciated facet of his artistry: Casals the conductor. Free, ardent and deeply human, he found his greatest freedom and inspiration in the concert hall. Despite the limitations of historic recordings, these performances convey the spontaneity, intensity and profound emotional engagement of what Casals himself called the “exaltation” of music.