Gaspar Cassadó

Gaspar Cassadó i Moreu ( born September 30, 1897 in Barcelona, † December 24, 1966 in Madrid) was a Spanish cellist and composer.

, The son of the church musician Joaquim Cassadó at the age of five years to study the cello with his father. 1907 his father moved to Paris with him. There he was favorite student of Pau Casals. He also had composition lessons with Manuel de Falla and Maurice Ravel.

After the First World War, he began his career as the world of concert cellist. He has performed under famous conductors such as Wilhelm Furtwängler, Sir Thomas Beecham and Felix Weingartner. Legendary was his recording of the Brahms Double Concerto together with Joseph Szigeti.

In the 1930s, he settled in Florence. He taught in Compostela and at the Academia Musicale Chiagana in Siena and served as a juror in international cello competitions. Among his pupils were Radu Aldulescu, Marcal Cervera, Elias Arizcuren, Susanne Basler and Rohan de Saram.

Since the late 1950s he often performed in a duo with Alicia de Larrocha. He also collaborated with famous colleagues such as David Oistrakh, Mstislav Rostropovich and Yehudi Menuhin. 1964 Cassadó played the world premiere of six unpublished cello sonatas Luigi Boccherini. Besides his interest particularly contemporary composers. It led to, among other works of Enric Morera, Bernhard Hamann, Arthur Honegger, Paul Hindemith, Mario Castelnuovo- Tedesco, Bohuslav Martinů, Frederick Delius, Luigi Dallapiccola, Alexandre Tansman, Hans Pfitzner and Aram Khachaturian.

In addition Cassadó composed several works for his instrument, a cello concerto and three string quartets, among others. Numerous works by other composers, he worked for cello and orchestra (eg, by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Franz Schubert, Carl Maria von Weber).