Cortot Last Concert: Cortot & Casals Beethoven Sonata op.69

[@ryohagitani892]

Freedom is the quality that the two musicians shared.　They are above all free from the fear of error which so many classical music listeners care about too much.

[@classicallpvault]

True. Spontaneity above note perfection. It's almost bizarre that there exist performers and listeners who think the opposite way, haha.

[@lemenyves34]

The two of them are above 80. However despite some flaws due to aging, Casals's cello still has its characteristic humming tone, and Cortot's piano its old fashioned clarity. Thanks for posting.

[@Starritt_Piano]

cortot on a beautiful bechstein grand piano, the that has been the eisteddfod piano for years :) what a lovely golden tone with masses of clarity. cortot's human spirit makes it come to life.

[@josephli7164]

The piano used is a Steinway not a Bechstein!

[@millriv1792]

I don't think most people understand the emotional context of this performance (aside from the fact that Cortot was well past his prime, to put it mildly). For years he had pleaded for Casals to forgive him for his wartime proclivities and so, in 1958, all was forgiven and Cortot invited to Prades to play with Casals - like an answered prayer for Cortot. I will quote from Robert Baldock's biography of Casals: "Cortot was deeply overwrought and found it difficult to play. After the first movement of the Sonata, Casals put down his cello and crossed to him for a further bout of emotional hugging, reassuring Cortot afterwards that his timing was far surer than that of the 'younger pianists': 'It is as if you had stolen a metronome adjusted by Beethoven himself.'"

[@pianomaly9859]

I'm not up on the history of the Prades Festivals, I'd imagine that it would have been Casals who invited Cortot to play. Who was in charge here?

[@davidjohnson9796]

@@pianomaly9859 Casals of course. That's why it's always called "Casals Festival at..."

[@pianomaly9859]

A wonderful, warm performance from these two octogenarian tigers. Thanks for posting.

[@hvspoedvink]

To my opinion Casals remains the greatest cellist I know; this sonata is simply amazing

[@classicallpvault]

I know of only one name to rival him. Not Rostropovich or Yo-Yo Ma, but Jean Decroos, the cellist of the Guarneri Trio with Herman Krebbers on violin (later replaced by Mark Lubotsky after Krebbers had an accident on his boat shattering his arm) and Decroos' wife Daniele Dechenne on piano. They used to record for CBS in the 1970s and he and his wife later recorded the entire set of Julius Röntgen's cello sonatas on CD. As a chamber musician he was better than Rostropovich and right in the same league as Pau Casals...

[@johnrobinsoniii4028]

Interesting note: Rostropovich studied the ‘Cello with his father. And his father’s teacher was…Pablo Casals!

[@hvspoedvink]

Casals is such an unique and "integer" performer; I never tire of listening to his cello.

[@tlandauerboat63]

Wish I had found this earlier! Amazing performance, both really know the work, one never gets the sense that's going to fall apart, it's like a test of how far they can drift on each direction but at the magic moment they come back together. WOW!

[@JDTNYC32]

anyone who criticizes cortot's performance ought to remember he was practically legally blind at this point and had a vascular problem that caused memory and sight problems. aside from that it's a rather historic performance because casals and cortot didn't speak for years because of cortot's support of the vichy regime.

[@millriv1792]

Not to mention that Cortot was and had been a drug addict for decades

[@vincent-ataramaniko]

Cortot only supported the vichy regime, so that he could behind the scenes save many, many jews. It is time people stop saying things that he was with the ideas of vichy.

[@MrInterestingthings]

Casals obviously felt sentimental and wanted to remember their old trio with Thibaud. Much better recordings everyday now. Cortot I will never know why he is so remarked upon by other pianists.I hear better shat at competitions everyday !Cortot really should have stopped concertizing in the 30's.He's quite awful.Horszowsky,Rosenthal,Sauer everybody sounds better and his "culture " doesn't mean toiletpaper.Just another weak Fench pianist like that woman HeleneGrimaud and DeBoulangerie !Turnips aint nothing but a boot!

[@judymorsink883]

A beautiful performance. thanks to u tube for providing

[@bvbwv3]

Simply amazing. As act of (re)creation on the highest order.

[@CarmenReyes-em9np]

Gracias a Cortot poddmos tocar el piano ,corrigio las obras que llegaban con errores. 🎶🎹🇲🇽😘

[@DonnaSilvia]

Festival di Prades, 1958. Un concerto per la storia.

[@noemiamaria1430]

Thank you very much for uploading❤❤❤❤❤❤

[@Wavewolfaroha]

Oh yes, totally agree! This performance is fine example, and thank you SIMC for posting!

[@morinoroba]

Who cares about some small gaps between Casals and Cortot, musically and technically mature performance by two historical great musicians! Thank you.

[@4980cbs]

God bless their lapses because the result is wonderful and unique!

[@berlinzerberus]

Wenn zwei solche Persölichkeiten und Individualisten zusammen spielen, denkt man nicht mehr an Perfektion, sowohl des eigenen Spiels als auch im Zusammenspiel. Man genießt vielmehr den Geist, der weht, die wunderbaren Details, die mal der eine mal der andere hervorbringt. Man höre nur auf die Durchführung [7:45], wie wunderbar der Anfang, wie sich beide Künstler antworten auf die musikalischen Fragen, die Beethoven ihnen stellt. Für diese Phrase müsste Cortot schon heilig gesprochen werden,ya!

[@허숙진-f3n]

ㅇ

[@alombredeslava2468]

Völlig richtig und sehr schön ausgedrückt.

[@mimiswensen7309]

A great legendary pianist indeed. Performing with Casals especially were wonderful performances and recordings unlike anything in the 21th Century. God Bless the Old Masters.

[@a.f.4248]

21th ?? What about 21st ?

[@Blomhert]

marvellous and legendary teamwork

[@mylesjordan9970]

Wow. This is an interesting, illuminating, often gorgeous performance-while also a virtual dissertation on what never to do to any piece of chamber music, let alone this one. “Culture is what remains after the details are forgotten!” Sadly, the wreck of a relationship.

[@fatimacanche9081]

Nunca imajine concer y oir a estosgrandes genios Mexico

[@antoniofernandez-albalatga5731]

Wonderful performance

[@johnnauman347]

Heaven!

[@CarmenReyes-em9np]

Increíble escucharlos. 🇮🇷🥉🥇🙏🤣🎶🎶🎶🎶Marzo 14 Aniversario. luctuoso para mí. ❤️

[@CarmenReyes-em9np]

Milagros de la tecnología que Dios les regaló a los. que aprendieron 🙏

[@strad1944]

Amazing that the "need " for ensemble perfection has come so far... Even Cortot's right hand isn't together with his left! The two just express the music on each other's plane, only occasionally playing together! Very interesting! When was this recorded? It sounds post 1950 from Casals.

[@MrKlemps]

This performance took place in 1956. Rehearsals had gone even more chaotically than this performance, and Casals's friends urged him to beg off. Casals, a person of significant moral courage throughout his later life, demonstrated it yet again in going through with the performance in tribute and loyalty to his former colleague, Cortot, who had begged him for forgiveness (for supporting the Vichy government during the war) and for one more opportunity to perform with him. It is "interesting" in a perverse kind of way but at the time must have been terribly nerve-wracking for Casals, Cortot, and especially for the audience. The Variations on "Bei Mannern" from Magic Flute, which they also performed, went a good deal better

[@kenmeerlivermaile]

Either way, it bubbles with life. IN fact, I prefer this kind of rendition: it's more like good jazz musicians working off a "head" arrangement. A bit sloppy but solid groove.

[@MrKlemps]

MrKlemps My error: the recording is from 1958.

[@jmrozendaal]

+lynn harrell "The two just express the music on each other's plane, only occasionally playing together!" Yes that is just what I hear here. Two Olympians in dialogue. And so slow! Which is fine, there is such poetry in each phrase. And the sound from the piano is so gorgeous.

[@garfieldmoore9632]

Looking forward to your performances at this age ......

[@Ipoksel]

Hard for mechanical players. A soul is required.

[@CarmenReyes-em9np]

Regreso en el tiempo. ( de Película. ,)

[@cortootify]

This performance is really unique.ex tempo phrase...

[@SK_0520]

１mov. 0:00〜 ２mov. 14:19〜 ３mov. 20:50〜 (Allegro 22:43〜)

[@CarmenReyes-em9np]

Siempre sujpuse que Casals fue pianista. GRACIAS.

[@gloriagualsala4236]

Quin so tan profund, t'arribe a les entranyes! bravo excel·lent.

[@CarmenReyes-em9np]

Bestein. mi maestro 🎶🎶🎶

[@johnnauman347]

God is here.

[@MrInterestingthings]

Hell is here. Weakplaying from two old caNoots!

[@johnnauman347]

Try and play this, dumb ass. I have successfully. Your weirdo profile is serial killer.

[@likeworldlikeworld2485]

Re slip ups, missed notes etc. Obviously you need perfect technique to bring everything out from the heart. But they have all the technique so it's ok! They are getting a bit old, in 1958, and they are not trying to be olympic gymnasts. But they still ARE. but a few missed/crushed notes does not take away from what they do. They also didn't have the same supplements like today!

[@geschiedschrijver]

Sometimes all these "imperfections" add to the charm of a performance, certainly in this case.

[@onceltom]

What about Serkin-Casals? Maybe Casals was the one calling the shots, It is certainly a "free" performance. The notes are not played literally as written.

[@xDMrGarrison]

Tom Dengler Why is that important?

[@johnnauman347]

Missed it, Tom.

[@Johannes_Brahms65]

They not only play out of sinc, casals has his cello tuned lower than the piano. It's nice to hear how forgiving everybody on KZbin is.

[@Tramlijn14]

28:06 :-))) Ah well... Cortot was 81........

[@MrInterestingthings]

He sounds dead like he did in the 1940's He should have stopped concertizing around 1933! Just a fool on a piano like you!

[@philippajoy4300]

Ah the days when cello temperament did not have to be in tune with piano temperament, but in tune qith itself, which made the string instrument brighter.m - and in places more melancholy.

[@CarmenReyes-em9np]

CHELO. ... ❤️‍🔥 🇮🇷 ❤️‍🔥

[@likeworldlikeworld2485]

Casals is like one of the last really genuine cellists and beethoven players. Prime time classical music. Today you get tallent and some feeling and emotion. But not raw emotion with every fibre of being, and from really pure soul. Eg too much iphone and distracting technology. Too easy yet confusing to the deeper senses.

[@MrInterestingthings]

Silly. People are born everyday with gobs of talent and they receive better training than Casals ever received. Stop Yo Nonsense!!!

[@curaticac5391]

There is an age past which even great performers should solely dedicate themselves to teaching. These two had long exceeded that age here. On the other hand, teaching is a quasi-sacred obligation for the preservation of musical tradition.

[@MrKlemps]

Curatica C: Actually both Cortot had long before "dedicated themselves to teaching". This may have been Cortot's last public performance and, in any case, was one of very special circumstances as some of the comments here explain.

[@cellomoore]

If only we could play with this level of integrity and emotion today; 2021

[@uliwidmaier5192]

Indeed. That age is gone. It died. I think, in 1991, with the passing of Arrau, Kempff, and Serkin.

[@mylesjordan9970]

This is a textbook “awful performance” that’s light-years ahead of many great ones.

[@pelegrino791]

Ah ! Cortot et ses fausses notes. Oui mais le violoncelle de Casals couine méchamment parfois et puis Horowitz ou Richter faisaient leur lot de fausses notes et personne ne songe à leur reprocher. Bizarre ...

[@jeanchristophkraft4191]

+michel brillau Arthur Schnabel played the biggest number of wrong notes in his recordings, we should bless a half-blind Cortot, who was also a morphine addict, for this divine inspired performance!

[@classic4ever780]

Entièrement d'accord ! (et Samson François alors ! ). On ne jouerai pas ainsi de nos jours (surtout le violoncelle) mais cela ne vaut-il pas mieux que d'entendre des métronomes mécaniques sans fausses notes certes mais aussi sans âmes.

[@ganjamozart1435]

I'm a big fan of Cortot, but never heard about his morphine addiction. Could you direct me where you found out about this, I'm very interested to read about this.

[@jeanchristophkraft4191]

I'm a friend of Robert Owens, who studied with Cortot back in 1946-1949. He told me about that. Cortot went almost blind by the mid 1940s because of that.

[@ganjamozart1435]

+Jean Christoph Kraft brilliant thanks;!!!

[@morinoroba]

But as a duo, the unity is missing here that's true, but still I liked it!

[@jackjustinwong]

yo yo ma suits u better

[@donaldallen1771]

This is great to have as a historical document. But I'm sorry -- the technical level of playing here by both Casals and Cortot would get a cellist and pianist without those two big names laughed off the stage today. Yes, I understand they were both in their 80s and that Cortot had problems with his eyesight and drug addiction. But compare this to the recording by Fournier and Schnabel, especially the last movement. I have played this piece more than once and so I know it well (I am an amateur pianist). What Fournier and Schnabel do is miraculous, musically and technically; it just exudes energy and vitality. Allegro vivace in spades. By comparison, Casals and Cortot sound either like amateurs or old men (which they were). I suspect that a lot of the gushing in the comments about this performance has more to do with knowing the names of the performers than actual listening.

[@johnmartin2017]

Or heart.

[@johnnauman347]

Wow, Donald I would love to hear your Beethoven. I guess you are the higher authority. Amateurs? Really? You need to listen. Missed it, Donald. Epic fail.

[@bernarddeniger3809]

Yeah Donald, how dare you?

[@clarkelliott768]

Ha ha! The good thing is, we all get to have our own preferences. Still Mr. Allen, I will offer the following: I've attended something like 700 live concerts--including when I walked around the halls of Eastman, and also, for a short while Julliard as well, and played in hundreds of concerts as well, as a professional. I listen as closely as anyone I know. I also continue to study my 10,000 LPs (many) tens of hours every week. I have an exceptional ear for sound, for overtones, for attack envelope, for rhythmic pull, and blah blah. Yet I might walk across the country to hear Casals play live, and having done so I'd know I was in the presence of one of the rarest and most exceptional musicians ever to be heard. And I'm not alone. We wouldn't go to honor what he did before--we'd go to hear what he was going to do, newly, in our presence, now. I'm so sorry you can't hear what the rest of us hear. Music is about so much more than the local execution of the notes. When Casals and Cortot play the first note, we have the sense that they are already, at the same time, conceiving of the last note, and everything in between as well, all at once, in long, long lines, unfolding as though inevitable. We are mesmerized from beginning to end, wrapped perhaps not so much in emotional connection, but something more abstract of the spirit. If I heard some high school kids playing like this, I'd be just a mesmerized! It has nothing to do with the names! It is all about the sound unfolding in the present moment. Also--and this may be part of the problem--you've probably only heard Casals once he's been digitized, and to my (quite finely tuned!) ear, once this gorgeous sound has been digitized, most of what is there for us to truly enjoy has been lost, though the shell is still there to remind us (like in this KZbin presentation). Please consider that there may be more to this than what currently appears to your ears. Who knows? We could be right and thus there is a treat waiting for you, with nothing to lose but some time to possibly find it. Good luck Donald. Vive la difference.

[@uliwidmaier5192]

Thank you for this beautiful reply. I have heard similarly ignorant opinions expressed about Horowitz, Milstein, Rubinstein, Heifetz, and so on. It is frustrating to hear people say negative stuff about performances that bring tears to the eyes of those who know.

[@millriv1792]

Also Cortot was, unfortunately, a hopeless addict to heroin and morphine most of his adult life, This certainly affected his performances.

[@MrKlemps]

I had not read that before. What is your source for that information? It would at least help explain the day-to-day fluctuations in the accuracy of his playing throughout his career, especially his post-WWII performances.

[@MrKlemps]

millriv I guess the story suggests Cortot was gay, something else I had not been aware of. One of the great re-creative artists of the century!

[@millriv1792]

MrKlemps YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@CLASSICALFAN100]

+MrKlemps He wasn't a serial killer, too? Hey, if you're going to load-it-on, don't hold back! I mean, it's not like Cortot is here to defend himself...lol

[@millriv1792]

+CLASSICALFAN100 Serial killer????? What's the matter with you????? You are a hopeless idiot!!!

[@LL-bl8hd]

Love Cortot. Sorry if this is sounds ignorant, but I don't understand why Casals is considered such a master. Was the standard of cello playing just much, much lower back then? His intonation is atrocious and his tone is thin and scratchy. You can hear better playing from most reasonably talented high school students today.

[@gasparocelloman9852]

Cortot was 81 and Casals was 82 (?) when they performed this recital together. If I could play as well at such an age as these two venerable masters did, I’d be happy. Casals was at the height of his powers in the ‘20s & ‘30s, and by the end of WWII had set the standard for the aspirations of just about every cellist that followed. Casals’ influence and legacy reaches far beyond just being one of history’s greatest cellists. To the uninitiated he is well worth further investigation.

[@aysiiou]

Probably Casals was playing on gut strings, which sounds different to today metal strings

[@lukasfierz5300]

So you are another addict of todays artificial studio perfection. But I advise to hear Casals with Schumann in Prades 1953 (live): All the others look like castrates beside him. And then there are the immortal prewar reference recordings of Cortot/Thibaud/Casals (Schubert, Mendelssohn etc.)..

[@MrInterestingthings]

Hate Cortoyand hare Casals. You have no ears.