The Pau Casals Museum (Catalan: Museu Pau Casals) is a museum centered on the life and work of Pau Casals, located on the seafront in Sant Salvador, in El Vendrell. It was opened in 1974. The museum has the mission of preserving, preserving and disseminating the figure of Pau Casals, his work and his heritage.
The museum’s main objective is to conserve, preserve and disseminate the knowledge of Pau Casals’ life and work through the extensive artistic and documentary heritage which is kept here.
History:
Music, this marvellous universal language, would have to be a source of communication between all people.
Pablo Casals (El Vendrell, 1876 – Puerto Rico, 1973) was one of the greatest cellists of the 20th Century. Internationally recognized as one of the finest performers and orchestra conductors of his time. Beside his extraordinary career as a musician, Casals was always a staunch defender of peace and freedom, in an epoch shaken by war and oppression. Pau Casals is also regarded as a devoted humanist and defender of freedom, justice and peace.
His international career began in Paris in 1899 and took him around the world. He spent the last 34 years of his life in exile, pining for his beloved Catalonia and his beach house at Sant Salvador in El Vendrell. During his exile, he was extraordinarily active with concerts benefiting Spanish and Catalan refugees who had fled the totalitarian regime to southern France and helping them in every possible way. With time, those activist efforts were complemented by his participation in festivals and master classes, and by conducting his oratorio El Pessebre (The Manger) in an international crusade for peace.
Pablo Casals’ intense activity never caused him to forget his links with Catalonia and with the town of his birth, El Vendrell. In 1910 he had the Villa Casals built, in Sant Salvador beach, El Vendrell, where he would return after his tours all over the world to spend the summer with family and friends. At the beginning of the 1920s, Casals established his habitual residence in Catalonia.
During this period he built up his collection of paintings and sculptures by the most renowned Catalan artists from the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th. Advised by gallery owners and art critics, Casals chose the works personally after seeing them at exhibitions held by Barcelona’s foremost galleries. Most of the works were acquired for the house at Sant Salvador. The coherence of the ensemble makes the collection an excellent sample of Catalan realist art.
The outcome of the Spanish Civil War obligated him to go into exile, and settle, first in France and later in San Juan de Puerto Rico, where he died in 1973 at the age of ninety-six.
Pau Casals always hoped to return to his homeland, but when he reached his nineties he realized that this would probably never happen. It was then that he decided to shape his legacy by establishing a Foundation dedicated to the highest human and musical ideals to which he had devoted his life. His hope was that it would personify those human principles we hold so dear. His house and garden in San Salvador became a living museum –not a static exhibit so much as a dynamic institution that spurred study of the musical century in which he played so great a part–. It was also his dream to build an educational center for young people of his native country as well as from around the globe: one that sponsored artistic activities at the highest level and inspired a greater love of music and culture. Pau Casals created this Foundation as a symbol of hope, because he believed that music can contribute to a better world.
Since then, the mission of the Foundation –whose board of trustees consists of many distinguished individuals, including representatives from Catalonia’s hallmark institutions– has been to conserve and convey the Maestro’s work and ideas through significant projects and activities.
The Pau Casals Foundation was created in 1972 by Casals himself – a year before he died – and his wife, Marta Montañez. The Foundation’s first objective, according to article 6 of its statutes, is “to conserve and improve the Pau Casals Museum House in Sant Salvador (El Vendrell)” . The Board of Trustees of the Foundation has been chaired, from its creation, by the corresponding Abbot of Montserrat.
Shortly after Pau Casals died, in 1974 the doors of some rooms of the estate were opened to the public, such as the Music Hall and the Hall of Sentiment, now converted into a gallery. A couple of years later, in 1976, the first version of the museum house was inaugurated.
The museum remained closed between 1996 and June 2, 2001, to rehabilitate the building from a structural and museographic point of view. With the inauguration of the new stage, the museum adopted the definitive name of Vil Casals-Museu Pau Casals.
Building:
At the beginning of the 20th century, more specifically in 1908, Pau Casals bought land and commissioned the construction of a summer house in the maritime district of Sant Salvador, which was then about three kilometers from the urban center of El Vendrell . He would call Vil•la Casals. A year later he signed the contract with Josep Carreras and Francisco Solà, builder and architect, respectively.
The construction works would not begin until January 1910. The following year, Casals already spent the summer at the estate with his family. In later summers, he would spend seasons with renowned musicians such as Enric Granados, Donald F. Tovey or Mieczyslaw Horszowski.
The building had two floors presented in a central body and a porch that opens the sea views. Progressively, the estate was expanding and new facilities were incorporated, such as a tennis court, a garden, a garden and at the end of the 20s, houses for guests. At that time the railing on the terrace was also modified by a balustrade
Antoni Puig i Gairalt made the first major renovations of the building in the early 30’s, to give it a nineteenth-century appearance.
In 1935 the Concert Hall and Sala del Vigatà were screened, where Francesc Pla i Duran, known as the Vigatà, were installed. It is a set of 18th-century paintings. A gallery of sculptures was also created, with works by Josep Clarà (Apolo), Martí Llauradó and Josep Llimona.
Pau Casals could not really enjoy the renovations of the house, since in 1939, when the works were completed, the Spanish Civil War broke out and it had to be exiled. He would never return.
The house was guarded by his brother Lluís Casals and other members of his family until 1976, when the museum was inaugurated definitively.
Collection:
Within the Pau Casals museum house, several music sculptures, paintings, musical instruments, photographs, autographs, furniture and other personal belongings are compiled and exhibited.
While Pau Casals lived in Catalonia he devoted himself to forming a private collection of Catalan painting. The works of artists linked to Sala Parés and the circle of Joan Merli can now be seen in the museum.
Documentary collection:
The documentary collection of the Pau Casals Foundation is conserved in the National Archive of Catalonia, in Sant Cugat del Vallès. This collection is made up of all documentation referring both to the personal and professional life of the teacher between 1876 and 1976. Some of his compositions and personal correspondence stand out, where he can see the relationship that he maintained with several personalities of the world of Catalan culture and, in general, with the various fields of contemporary culture, politics and society. Also, the section on sound and image documents stands out.
The Pablo Casals Collection is formed by the documents relating to the personal, professional and public life of Pau Casals from 1876 to 1976. The collection contains the documents generated and received by Pau Casals, his personal and family documents, the documents produced as a consequence of his artistic activity as a musician, and documentation on his associative and political activity. Because of its volume and interest, the creative work which it contains is notable among the ensemble of the fonds, including compositions by Pau Casals as well as by other musicians. Likewise significant is the correspondence fonds, which is of special interest since it bears witness to the relations maintained by Pau Casals with the diverse spheres of culture, politics and society of his times.
Another notable feature of the collection is its image and sound section, formed by photographs, sketches, diplomas, prints and drawings, and an important sound and audiovisual collection, the latter containing, among other things, diverse 8mm and 16mm films dealing with Pau Casals’ life. The Pablo Casals Collection is currently on deposit at the National Archive of Catalonia (ANC).