Robert Casadesus
Robert Casadesus was the quintessential French musician, a passionate perfectionist who carried the Gallic virtues of precision, clarity, and elegance into the mid-twentieth century as an embodiment of the living spirit of classicism -- precision animated by passion, clarity attained through sensuous scintillance, and elegance as the expression of the most lucidly aware animation. Born in Paris to a distinguished family of musicians -- his father and three uncles enjoyed careers as performers and composers -- Robert took first prize for piano at the Paris Conservatoire at age 14. Studies with Louis Diémer -- early enthusiast of the French clavicenistes, premiere soloist and dedicatee of Franck's Variations symphoniques for piano and orchestra -- graced Casadesus with the mantle of the inheritor. In 1921 he married fellow Diémer pupil Gabrielle (Gaby) L'Hôte. The following year he earned Ravel's friendship with his performance of Gaspard de la nuit, which led to European tours with the composer and legendary soprano Madeleine Grey. "You are a composer," Ravel wrote, "because you have the courage to play 'Gibet' as I imagined it, that is, as a slow piece...And virtuoso pianists do not want to play it like that. They double the tempo and make it much faster. That is why I think you are a composer." Indeed, Casadesus' catalog eventually embraced some 68 works, including seven symphonies, concertos for two and three pianos and orchestra, 27 chamber works, and 20 works for piano. It is music for connoisseurs, music of formal concision not devoid of passionate expression, but highly wrought, suggestive, and understated in, typically, lyrically attenuated slow movements, tender and strange, and conclusions of fastidious tumult. It is the antithesis of Mahler's confessional expansiveness, while Stravinsky's neo-Classical manner seems gimmicky and carnivalesque by comparison. Casadesus was a distinguished teacher, beginning his career as professor of piano at the American Conservatory in Fontainebleau in 1921, and replacing Isidor Philipp as its head in 1935. But it is primarily as a touring pianist and recording artist that Casadesus is remembered, appearing throughout Europe and the United States over 2,000 times in a career spanning half a century, often in duo-piano recitals with his wife. His authoritative, exhilarating recordings of the Mozart piano concertos with George Szell and the Cleveland Orchestra, the Beethoven violin sonatas and the Franck Sonata with Zino Francescatti, Franck's Variations symphoniques and d'Indy's Symphonie cévenole with Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the piano works of Ravel -- to name but the most prominent -- are among the very greatest.
© TiVo
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Debussy, Ravel: Récital pour piano (Mono Version)
Miscellaneous - Released by BNF Collection on 1 Jan 1959
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Beethoven: Violin Sonatas No. 9 "Kreutzer" & No. 1 (Mono Version)
Zino Francescatti, Robert Casadesus
Miscellaneous - Released by BNF Collection on 1 Jan 1960
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Beethoven: Violin Sonatas Nos. 7-9
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Chamber Music - Released by Biddulph Recordings on 27 Oct 2004
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Beethoven: Piano Sonatas Nos. 2 & No. 23
Classical - Released by Sony Classical on 1 Mar 2019
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Beethoven: Piano Concerto No.1, OP. 15 - Piano Concerto NO. 4, OP. 58
Robert Casadesus, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra
Keyboard Concertos - Released by Altair on 2 Jul 2022
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Great Classical Music #56 : Le Grandi Composizioni per Clavicembalo • Jean-Philippe Rameau // François Couperin // Johann Sebastian Bach // Domenico Scarlatti // Maurice Ravel
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Classical - Released by Ermitage Records on 30 Oct 2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Kölner Rundfunk-Sinfonie-Orchester / Robert Casadesus spielen: Maurice Ravel: Concerto pour la main gauche en ré majeur: Lento, Più Lento, Andante Accelerando - Allegro, Più vivo ed accelerando, Lento, Allegro
Robert Casadesus, Koelner Rundfunk-Sinfonie-Orchester
Concertos - Released by Classico Ivano on 5 Dec 2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Piano Concertos to Relax (Famous Classical Music)
Classical - Released by Cfsunfilm on 2 Jan 2008
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Beethoven: Piano Concertos Nos. 4 & 5 (LIve)
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Thomas Beecham, Robert Casadesus
Classical - Released by Ica Classics on 2 Nov 2018
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Essential Halloween Album
Michael Schneider, David Moore, Robert Casadesus
Ambient/New Age - Released by Saland Publishing on 15 May 2011
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
"Simply" Beethoven (Famous Classical Music)
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Classical - Released by Cfsunfilm on 13 Oct 2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mozart: Concertos pour piano Nos. 24 & 26 "Le couronnement" (Mono Version)
Robert Casadesus, George Szell, Columbia Symphony Orchestra
Miscellaneous - Released by BNF Collection on 1 Jan 1957
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Beethoven: Sonates pour violon et piano Nos. 2 & 10 (Mono Version)
Zino Francescatti, Robert Casadesus
Miscellaneous - Released by BNF Collection on 1 Jan 1960
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Mozart: Piano Concertos Nos. 17 & 23
Robert Casadesus, Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano della Rai, Fernando Previtali
Classical - Released by Archipel on 1 Jan 2006
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 4 in G Major, Op. 58 - Ravel: Piano Concerto for the Left Hand in D Major, M. 82 (Remastered 2023) (Live)
Robert Casadesus, Eugene Ormandy, Philadelphia Orchestra
Concertos - Released by Artemisia on 28 Nov 2023
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mozart, W.A.: Piano Sonatas Nos. 12, 13, 14, 18 (Casadesus) (1956)
Classical - Released by Naxos Classical Archives on 1 Jan 2000
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Falla: Nights in the Gardens of Spain - Three Dances from 'The Three Cornered Hat' - 'La Vida Breve' - Interlude and Dance
Robert Casadesus, Dimitri Mitropoulos, New York Philharmonic
Symphonic Music - Released by Infinity on 14 May 2021
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Saint-Saëns, D’indy, Mozart, Liszt & Chabrier
New York Philharmonic, Edouard Nies-Berger, Walter Hendl, Arthur Schuller, Robert Casadesus
Symphonic Music - Released by Altair on 2 May 2023
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Collection of Beethoven's Piano Concertos
Robert Casadesus, Clifford Curzon, Eduard van Beinum, Hans Knappertsbusch, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Wiener Philharmonic Orchestra
Classical - Released by Infinity on 19 Dec 2022
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Beethoven: Sonates for piano and violin
Zino Francescatti, Robert Casadesus
Chamber Music - Released by MVE on 10 Apr 2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Beethoven: Sonates pour piano et violon
Zino Francescatti, Robert Casadesus
Chamber Music - Released by MVE on 10 Apr 2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo