Pablo casals4/1/2023 That is why everything that comes from the United Nations goes straight to my heart and I follow closely everything that the United Nations does.Concerts begin at 9pm in the glittering blue and gold nave of the church of St Pierre. When I was a boy, my mother – an exceptional, marvellous woman – would talk to me about peace, because at that time there were many wars. I learnt to love it when I was but a child. Peace has always been my greatest concern. I am very moved… This is the greatest honour I have ever received. In response to this unexpected distinction, Casals was moved and overwhelmed by the honour he had just received and he delivered one of his most emotional and unforgettable speeches for peace and his homeland, Catalonia, away from which he had been living in exile for more than thirty-two years. Both as a man and as an artist you embody the ideals symbolised by the United Nations Peace Medal. You have devoted your life to truth, to beauty and to peace. U Thant presented it to him with the following words: The work, written for choir and orchestra without soloists, was entitled Hymn to the United Nations and it premiered at the headquarters of the General Assembly in New York on 24 October 1971, with the participation of the Choir of the Manhattan School of Music, the Singers of the United Nations and the Casals Festival Orchestra under the direction of Pablo Casals.Ĭasals received the United Nations Peace Medal on that very same day. Casals accepted the commission, but faced with the difficulty of the text he suggested that the poet W. In 1970, Secretary-General U-Thant wrote to Casals and asked him to compose an anthem for the United Nations based on the words in the Preamble to the Charter of the United Nations. The programme included Pablo Casals’ message of peace, in which he called for the union and brotherhood of all peoples. Music was his only weapon and he had decided that all financial profits would go to a fund created to promote those causes that defended human dignity, brotherhood among men and world peace. Two years later, in 1962 in San Francisco, Casals announced his Peace Crusade, which would take him to conduct his oratorio throughout the world. Secretary-General U-Thant described him as “a musical giant of this century” and “a renowned figure throughout the world as a champion of peace and human rights”.Įl Pessebre (The Manger) was premiered in December 1960 in Acapulco, Mexico, in gratitude to the country for welcoming Spanish exiles. The second time Pablo Casals went to the United Nations was in 1963, when the then Secretary-General of the United Nations, U Thant, invited him to its New York headquarters to conduct his oratorio El Pessebre (The Manger) with the Casals Festival Orchestra and Cleveland Orchestra Choir. 4 by Brahms, performed by the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Casals did not miss this opportunity to use his music and cello to bring his message of peace to the world.Īccompanied by his pianist friend Mieczysław Horszowski, he performed Sonata for Cello and Piano No. Despite the problems and obstacles that arose in its path, this international forum represented the greatest hope for laying the foundations for peace and understanding among nations. Casals had not played in the United States for thirty years. Casals, who maintained his protest of not playing in Allied countries because of the continuation of Franco’s dictatorship in Spain, accepted the invitation because the headquarters of the United Nations was considered neutral international ground. Shortly afterwards, he was invited by Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld to perform in a concert commemorating the 13th Anniversary of the United Nations in New York. During the summer of 1958, Pablo Casals added his voice together with that of the legendary Albert Schweitzer in a manifesto calling on the Russian and American leaders to halt the arms race and nuclear testing.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply.AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |