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Spanish cellist and composer From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Gaspar Cassadó i Moreu (30 September[1] or 5 October 1897[2] – 24 December 1966) was a Spanish cellist and composer of the early 20th century.
Gaspar Cassadó i Moreu was born in Barcelona to a church musician father, Joaquim Cassadó, and began taking cello lessons at age seven. When he was nine, he played in a recital where Pablo Casals was in the audience; Casals immediately offered to teach him. The city of Barcelona awarded him a scholarship so that he could study with Casals in Paris.
In 1914 World War I broke out and his brother Agustí died a victim of an epidemic. Gaspar returned to Barcelona and began to offer concerts with the main orchestras of Spain. From 1918 he also performed in France and Italy, thanks to his friendship with Alfredo Casella. In 1920 he toured Argentina. From 1922 he began to make known his own compositions, both pieces for cello and concerts, chamber music, oratorios and a sardana. He also made transcriptions for cello.
In 1923 and thanks to the friendship with Francesco von Mendelssohn he met the singer and pianist Giulietta Gordigiani,[3] with whom he lived for more than three decades, settling in Florence. Gaspar and Giulietta created a cello and piano duo with which they toured the European stages for more than a decade, achieving great success. Giulietta Gordigiani, widow of Robert von Mendelssohn, offered him fundamental support for the development and promotion of his career, as well as an excellent piano collaboration. Great virtuosos, they reaped for years the praise of the public and the admiration of the critics. In 1940 he toured the United States and spent the years of World War II in the village of Striano with Giulietta.
His career suffered a very significant and irreparable decline in the postwar period, due mainly to a famous letter published by his former teacher Casals in the New York Times accusing him of collaboration with the fascist regimes and asking that Cassadó not be allowed to play in the allied countries. Cassadó disputed Casals' allegations, and scholars have questioned Casals' motivation. Cassadó and Casals eventually reconciled with the help of Yehudi Menuhin.[4]
Cassadó combined his solo career with his participation as a jury in international competitions. From 1946 he was professor at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena, and from 1958 at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik in Cologne. That same year he co-founded the "Course of Spanish Music in Compostela" in Santiago de Compostela.
He was also the author of several notable musical hoaxes,[5] notably the "Toccata"[6] that he attributed to Girolamo Frescobaldi.[7]
The personal papers of Cassadó's father are preserved in the Biblioteca de Catalunya. Gaspar's own papers, along with those of his wife, the pianist Chieko Hara, are preserved at the Tamagawa University Museum of Education.[8]
On the invitation of his great friend Alicia de Larrocha, with whom he had a cello-piano duo (touring extensively with him from 1956–58), Gaspar Cassadó played concerts and led frequent classes at Academia Marshall in Barcelona. The Professor of Cello chair at Academia Marshall is named after Gaspar Cassadó and held since 2018 by Professor Jacob Shaw.
| External audio | |
|---|---|
 You may hear Gaspar Cassadó performing Johannes Brahms's Piano Trio No. 2 in C major, Op. 87 with the pianist Myra Hess and violinist Jelly D'Arani in 1935 Here on archive.org |
Cassadó's many transcriptions are listed below his original works.
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