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
Artistas similares
-
Herbert von Karajan - The Early Lucerne Years
Clásica - Editado por audite Musikproduktion el 8/09/2023
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
Mozart: Piano Concerto Nos. 21 & 24 ((Remastered))
Clásica - Editado por Sony Classical el 1/01/1983
24-Bit 192.0 kHz - Stereo -
Ernest Ansermet Collection, Vol. 5: Magnard's Symphony No. 3 and d'Indy's Cévenole Symphony
Ernest Ansermet, Ernest Ansermet, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Robert Casadesus
Música sinfónica - Editado por RTS Radio Télévision Suisse - Evasion Music el 16/11/2016
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 3 in D Minor, Op. 30 - Ravel: Piano Concerto for the Left Hand in D Major, M. 82 & Le tombeau de Couperin, M. 68a (Remastered 2024) (Live)
The Cleveland Orchestra, George Szell, Robert Casadesus, Gina Bachauer
Clásica - Editado por Archipel el 5/04/2024
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
Robert Casadesus plays Mozart
Música concertante - Editado por Sony Classical el 18/03/2011
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mozart: Piano Concertos Nos. 26 & 27
Clásica - Editado por Sony Classical el 13/07/2018
24-Bit 192.0 kHz - Stereo -
Mozart: Piano Concertos Nos. 21, 24 & Piano Sonata No. 12
Clásica - Editado por Sony Classical el 26/11/2010
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Complete French Columbia Recordings (1928-1939)
Clásica - Editado por APR el 18/10/2019
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mozart: Piano Concertos Nos. 15 & 17 ((Remastered))
Clásica - Editado por Sony Classical el 3/08/2018
24-Bit 192.0 kHz - Stereo -
Franck: Variations symphoniques, FWV 46 & D'Indy: Symphonie sur un chant montagnard français, Op. 25 (2019 Remastered Version)
Clásica - Editado por Sony Classical el 1/03/2019
24-Bit 192.0 kHz - Stereo -
Liszt, Ravel & Brahms: Casadeus
Wiener Symphoniker, Robert Casadesus, Sergiù Celibidache
Clásica - Editado por Orfeo el 4/03/2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Lucerne Festival Historic Performances: Carl Schuricht (Live)
Clásica - Editado por audite Musikproduktion el 19/05/2017
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mozart, Chopin, Debussy & Ravel: Piano Works
Clásica - Editado por SWR Mediaservices GmbH el 26/04/2019
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Masterworks Heritage: Ravel - Complete Solo Piano Music
Clásica - Editado por Sony Classical el 20/04/1998
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mozart: Sonata for 2 Pianos, K. 448 & Andante with 5 Variations, K. 501 - Schubert: Fantasia, D. 940 & Andantino varié, D. 823
Clásica - Editado por Sony Classical el 1/03/2019
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bach: Concertos for 2 & 3 Pianos
Clásica - Editado por Sony Classical el 21/08/1995
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Beethoven: Violin Sonatas Nos. 5 in F Major"Spring" & 6 in A Major (Remastered)
Zino Francescatti, Robert Casadesus
Clásica - Editado por Sony Classical el 8/05/2020
24-Bit 192.0 kHz - Stereo -
Ravel: Left Hand Concerto - Mozart: Concerto for 2 Pianos (2018 Remastered Version)
Clásica - Editado por Sony Classical el 1/03/2019
24-Bit 192.0 kHz - Stereo -
Scarlatti: Sonatas - Reameau: Gavotte es six doubles & Les Niais de Sologne
Clásica - Editado por Sony Classical el 1/03/2019
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Saint-Saëns: Piano Concerto No. 4 - Fauré: Ballade & Préludes 1, 3 & 5
Clásica - Editado por Sony Classical el 1/03/2019
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mozart: Piano Concertos 18 & 20 ((Remastered))
Clásica - Editado por Sony Classical el 29/06/2018
24-Bit 192.0 kHz - Stereo