Casals, Pablo (Pau) (1876–1973)

Catalan cellist, composer, and conductor. He was largely self-taught. As a cellist, he was celebrated for his interpretations of Johann Sebastian Bach's unaccompanied suites. He wrote instrumental and choral works, including the Christmas oratorio The Manger, which was first performed in Mexico in 1960.

He was an outspoken critic of fascism who openly defied Franco, and a tireless crusader for peace.

Casals was born in Tarragona. His pioneer recordings of Schubert and Beethoven trios in 1905, with the French violinist Jacques Thibaud and French pianist Alfred Cortot, launched his international career and established the popularity of the cello as a solo instrument, notably the solo suites of Johann Sebastian Bach recorded in 1916. In 1919 he founded the Casals Orchestra in Barcelona, which he conducted until leaving Spain in 1939 to live in Prades in the French Pyrenees, where he founded an annual music festival. In 1956 he moved to Puerto Rico, where he launched the Casals Festival in 1957. He toured extensively in the USA.

He married three times; his first wife was the Portuguese cellist Guilhermina Suggia (1888–1950).