Oct. 5: Pablo Casals and Bach

By Ray Brown

Carolyn and Ian of Manchester, NH requested that we play a selection from Pablo Casals' legendary recording of Bach's Cello Suites, and Joseph of South Hamilton wanted to hear the Prelude to the first Bach Cello Suite. We'll fulfill both requests by playing the complete first Cello Suite as performed by Casals. We'll precede the Bach with the piece with which Casals ended every one of his concerts, his own arrangement of the Catalan folk song El Cant dels Ocells (The Song of the Birds), which he played as an expression of his solidarity with the people of his native Catalonia in the face of their oppression under the Franco regime. And in case you missed it here's Casals performing this song: