Pablo Casals
"The Young Casals: Cello Recital" (Vinyl)

Pablo Casals may be the first musician of our "modern" age who received such widespread adoration and attention - before he was dead.

Musicians worshipped Casals for his music-making in the early 20th century.  To complement, he had a tale of adversity to accompany, one fraught with political unrest and restricted travel.

This led to a multitude of famous musicians forming the Casals Music Festival in Puerto Rico, Casals' home from 1956 onward.  (Prior to this he fled his homeland of Spain for Prades, France where he started the Prades Music Festival.)

Debate could continue for an eternity about the validity of Casals' cello playing when compared to today's musicians, but you can not deny the superstar status he enjoyed during his lifetime.

This recording, released in 1971 (released after his 96th birthday) is a compilation of recordings made when he was young.  Sadly, this also means the recordings are quite old and poor.

Most of this music is unfamiliar to me and I wished entire works had been included on this album instead of movements excerpted from everyone from Bach to Tartini to Popper.