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Barb2
Registered
User
(1/26/01 3:30:34 pm)
Reply |
Casals
- Finding the Good to Praise
This arrived in my inbox this
morning, thought it worth sharing with you all. (And if you're
interested in the book, I'll bet Janet can find it for
you!)
Barb
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Pablo Casals (1876-1973)
Finding the Good to Praise
Pablo Casals, one of the greatest
cellists of all time, revolutionized cello technique, thrilled
millions of music lovers, moved dozens of composers to write works
for his instrument, and composed for the cello himself. But his
supreme contribution may be in the thousands of students he
inspired.
Casals loved his students. In an age when critics were
looking for one wrong note on which to condemn a young performer,
Casals looked for the good in cellists under his tutelage.
An
example was Gregor Piatigorsky (1903-1976), who would in time become
one of the great cello master performers. As a young man,
Piatigorsky was eager to play for the renowned Casals, but when the
opportunity arrived, he unfortunately turned into a bundle of
nerves. Botching every movement, he doggedly plowed through works of
Bach, Beethoven, and Schumann--knowing he had disgraced
himself.
But no. To Piatigorsky's amazement, at the end of the
last piece Casals burst into applause and praise. He even learned
over and embraced the confused Piatigorsky, who knew that he had
done poorly. How could this great man stoop to such patronizing
praise?
In time, Piatigorsky's talents were evident to all, and
as a fellow world-class performer, he developed a friendship with
Casals. One night after the twohad played duets for hours,
Piatigorsky mustered the courage and confronted Casals about that
"undeserved praise" of long ago.
Casals hadn't forgotten the
private performance, and he responded intensely: He quickly grabbed
his cello and played a phrase from the very Beethoven sonata that
Piatigorsky had blundered through. "Listen!" he shouted. "Didn't you
play this fingering? It was novel to me... It was good... and here,
didn't you attack that passage with up-bow, like this?" On and on he
went, recalling the good in Piatigorsky's "inadequate"
presentation.
He concluded with words that Piatigorsky never
forgot: "And for the rest, leave it to the ignorant and stupid who
judge by counting only the faults. I can be grateful, and so must
you be, for even one note, one wonderful phrase."
Casals' words
haunt me. How easy to see what's wrong rather than what's right or
worthy of praise. [The Apostle] Paul tells us to think about what is
excellent, admirable, or praiseworthy. I suggest we take that a step
further and talk about talents or actions or qualities that meet
those qualifications.
Almost anyone can tell someone what he's
doing wrong, rather than what he's doing right. I do this all too
often myself--with colleagues, with students, with my children, even
with my wife. How much better life would be if I could learn the
secret of Pablo Casals--the ability to inspire others by telling
them the truth about what they do well.
(From Spiritual Moments
with the Great Composers, by Patrick Kavanaugh,Pub. Zondervan, 1995,
p. 21-22).
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drcello
Registered User
(1/26/01 3:35:47 pm)
Reply | Edit |
And
now, the rest of the story...
Amen! Piatigorsky himself told that
story and more in his book, Cellist:
www.celloheaven.com/cellist/chap17.htm
Marshall C. St.
John
drcello@vei.net
http://www.celloheaven.com
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Duane
Nevins
Registered User
(1/27/01 1:39:48 am)
Reply |
Pablo
Casals
In 1969 when I was a sailor aboard
the USS Thomas Jefferson SSBN 618, a fleet ballistic missile nuclear
powered submarine in the United States Navy, I had the rare
opportunity to talk to Pablo Casals at his home in San Juan, Puerto
Rico. The Submarine was in port in Puerto Rico and when I was off
duty one evening I just looked in a telephone directory in a phone
booth and looked up Pablo Casals telephone number and wrote it down
on a piece of paper. Back then I was pretty young and very naive. A
few days later when I got a chance I just went to a public telephone
and dialed the number. Pablo Casals' wife answered the phone and I
asked to speak to Pablo Casals. She told me that he wasn't home at
the time, that he was in Europe and would be home the following week
and that I could call back then. I told her that I would try to call
him back later. The next week I called again, but this time his aid
answered the phone and when I told him that I was an American sailor
who played the cello and who wanted to talk to Pablo Casals, he told
me that "Pablo Casals doesn't speak to just anyone on the phone". Of
course he was correct, but I started to argue with him because I
knew that this would be my only chance to make contact with this
great cellist who I so admired. As he started to hang up the phone,
I heard a voice in the background asking "what seems to be the
problem"? He replied "There's this American sailor who wants to talk
to you". The voice was Pablo Casals and he said "good, invite him
out to the house". Later, I found myself in a room at Pablo Casals'
home waiting to see him when it hit me. I started to get very
nervous and I wondered just what I was going to say and how I was
going to justify being there! Then Pablo Casals appeared at the
doorway and I greeted him with a handshake and I called him maestro.
He said "I understand you are a cellist" and I said "a very mediocre
cellist" and he said "well, aren't we all". I looked at him closely
and he was serious about his comment. We spent the next couple of
hours talking about music, mostly the Bach cello suites. I felt as
though I was in a dream. I couldn't believe that I was actually
talking to Pablo Casals. And I remember him telling me that he
thought that most other cellists could play much easier than he
could. He thought that he had to work much harder in order to be
able to play certain musical phrases in the Bach suites and that
other cellists most likely could do it easier than he could. When I
eventually left I looked at my watch and realized that I had been
there for about two and a half hours. I was only a beginning cellist
and I had spent an afternoon, one on one, with Pablo Casals.
Musically speaking, the only thing good about me was my intentions
and yet Pablo Casals gave me his time and his understanding and his
wisdom and an invaluable experience which I will never forget.
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zambocello
Registered User
(1/27/01 1:46:12 am)
Reply |
Wow!
Fascinating!
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Duane
Nevins
Registered User
(1/30/01 3:13:28 am)
Reply |
And
now, the rest of my story...
After I returned home and told my
cello playing friends that I had seen Pablo Casals and had spent an
afternoon with him, I was asked if I got his autograph. That seemed
a little strange to me at the time, but I figured that if I got a
second chance to see Pablo Casals, I would ask him for an autograph.
Just before I finished my enlistment in the Navy in 1970 when I was
aboard the USS Entemedor, an old WWII diesel powered submarine, once
again I got the opportunity to travel to Puerto Rico and this time I
took a paperback copy of the book, "Conversations with Casals" by J.
Ma. Corredor with me. Before I arrived I wrote Pablo Casals a letter
and told him how much I enjoyed our first meeting and how much it
meant to me. I don't remember just exactly what happened next, but I
do remember stopping by Pablo Casals' house with the book and
leaving it with someone at the house for him to sign and mail back
to me. Several weeks later I received the book in the mail with a
personal note on the inside cover saying, "To Duane K. Nevins with
best wishes - Thank you for your lovely letter" and signed, Pablo
Casals. I still keep that book in the envelope that it was mailed
back to me in with Pablo Casals' return address on it. Now, if I
could only study how to play the cello with that same degree of
enthusiasm that I had back then.
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ICS
Director 
Administrator
(1/31/01 12:41:26 am)
Reply |
Re:
Casals - Finding the Good to Praise
Casals has inspiring words for all
of us. And the Duane Nevins story is one of a kind. I hope someone
is archiving this! (Paul or Marshall?)
If this is an example
of the current threads, we have come a long way over the past few
years!
Thank you for sharing!
John
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