pau casals

Theoretical physicist and cellist exchanged letters after concert at United Nations HQ in 1958

Foreign minister visits America and Mexico to commemorate 50^th anniversary of cellist Casals' famed UN speech

Foreign minister attends event organized by Catalonia's delegation to Switzerland

Palau de la Música marked 50^th anniversary of landmark address, which will also be remembered in another show in Geneva

Catalan authorities praise the great cellist as National Day celebrations draw to a close

38^th edition of international event focuses on Catalan cellist's push to recover German works discredited due to First World War

For the run-up to the Mediterranean Games, the seaside town will host a performance by the Symphonic National Orchestra of Barcelona and Catalonia

El Vendrell, a coastal town near Tarragona in southern Catalonia, will hold from the 29th of September to the 30th of October some 20 activities to commemorate the 140th anniversary of Pau Casals’ birth. The programme for ‘Pau Casals Month’ includes conferences, concerts and exhibitions which aim to pay tribute to the prominent cellist. The two principal activities will be the talks given by Casals’s widow and the Abbot of Montserrat, Josep Maria Soler Canals. The commemoration, which last year went on for a week, has been extended to a month this 2016. El Vendrell’s Councillor for Culture, Eva Serramià, stated during the presentation of the programme on Monday that the goal of this extension is to “surpass the local sphere and situate El Vendrell in the international scene”.

The Landscape of the Geniuses tourism project celebrates how the Province of Tarragona (south Catalonia) has influenced the work of four world renowned artists: Antoni Gaudí, Joan Miró, Pau Casals and Pablo Picasso. The route focuses on four municipalities in the Costa Daurada and the Ebro Valley, in which these artists spent a considerable amount of time, and explore how the region left a lasting impression and inspired them in the creation of their work. The route involves 270 points of interest and accommodation facilities that include: museums, architecture, restaurants, hotels and campsites. A tourist card gives access to all of the visitor centres along the route as well as numerous discounts.

“The United Nations respect self-determination processes” stated the Secretary General of the United Nations when he was asked about Catalonia’s and Scotland’s self-determination processes during his official visit to Andorra, a small independent country in the Pyrenees which has Catalan as its official language. Ban Ki-moon urged all the political leaders to talk and find a negotiated and peaceful solution. “All the pending issues among countries have to be solved via peaceful means and through dialogue, respecting the genuine will of the affected people”, he stated. As opposed to the United Kingdom’s Government, the Spanish Executive currently refuses to even talk about Catalonia’s self-determination claims, which are backed by November’s electoral results and recent opinion polls.

‘L’exili’ (The Exile) is part of Barcelona-based Teatre Lliure’s series “Cartes lliures” (Free Letters) directed by Pau Carrió. The series focuses on the correspondence of Catalan intellectuals, and each “chapter” has a theme. The veteran theatre actors Núria Espert and Josep Maria Flotats, who are considered to be two of the best actors in Catalonia, perform in that focusing on the exile. They read on stage the letters of intellectuals who were obliged to leave Catalonia because of the Spanish Civil War.

The Catalan violoncello player and composer Pau Casals was asked in 1971 to create an anthem for the United Nations by the former Secretary General. However, after Pau Casals death and the change of UN Secretary General, the anthem was never played again. The Spanish Parliament’s Culture Commission came to an unanimous motion to ask the Spanish Government to push for the restoration of the United Nations official anthem.

Marta Casals asks the Spanish Government to ask the UN to recuperate the anthem that 40 years ago Pau Casals especially composed. The anthem was used in the seventies, under U Thant’s term, and then forgot. The famous cellist wrote a song for peace.