Cellist in Exile: A Portrait of Pablo Casals

by Bernard Taper

Overview

The cellist in exile is, of course, Pablo Casals, one of the noble figures of the century, who is aptly described here by Bernard Taper as that rarity—an artist with a sense of commitment to humanity."
The book is informal, deeply personal, and permeated with Mr. Taper's own wonder and affection for his subject. Sensitive, perceptive, and lucid, Cellist in Exile captures the flavor of a unique personality. The book reveals Casals as he is today—still playing the cello inimitably at the age of eighty-five, still stubbornly asserting the moral tenets which have shaped his life—and shows him in the setting of Puerto Rico, which has been his home for the past few years and is his present place of exile. At the same time the book, without being a formal biography, succeeds in re-creating for the reader a vivid sense of Casals' long, intense, rich, and purposeful life.
In preparing this work, Mr. Taper enjoyed a number of conversations with Casals at his home, talks about a whole gamut of subjects—music, freedom, nature, peace, and the Catalonian homeland that Casals still yearns for after more than two decades in exile.
As expanded from the widely acclaimed Profile in The New Yorker, Mr. Taper's book shows Casals in many moods and many different activities—rehearsing, playing the cello, early morning walks along the beach, and at home with his attractive young wife. He is seen in playful imitation of a novice performer's nervousness when attempting a quavering line Schubert, a scene then heightened by Casals' confession of the acute nervousness he has suffered before every one of the performances in his own triumphant career. Mr. Taper conveys the cellist's warmth and simplicity when working with other famed musicians and the kind of communion in music shared with the members of his Casals' Festival Orchestra.
Beautifully illustrated throughout with numerous photographs, some of which had never before been published.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781789126273
Publisher:	Muriwai Books
Publication date:	12/05/2018
Sold by:	Bookwire
Format:	eBook
Pages:	96
File size:	36 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Bernard B. Taper (1918-2016) was an American journalist and author.
Born in Scotland on January 28, 1918 and raised in London, England, Taper came to the U.S. alone on a freighter at the age of 11. He was a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army during WWII and, immediately after it ended, became one of the "monuments men" charged with the duty of recovering paintings and sculptures looted by the Nazis. He earned a bachelor's degree from UC Berkeley and a master's degree in creative writing from Stanford. He used many of those skills during his reporting career at The Chronicle from 1950 to 1955.
In 1956, Taper joined the staff of The New Yorker, where he remained for three decades and, with his friend and former Chronicle reporter Kevin Wallace, wrote countless Talk of the Town stories. Taper profiled 14-year-old chess prodigy Bobby Fischer; the first prime minister of Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah; cellist Pablo Casals; and Broadway producer Jerome Robbins.
In 1963, he expanded a series of his profiles of choreographer George Balanchine into a best-selling biography, considered the definitive account of the great Russian man of dance.
In 1970, he joined the faculty of the Graduate School of Journalism at UC Berkeley, where he was best known for teaching a class on the writing of profiles and short biographies.
Taper helped found the California Shakespeare Theater in 1973.
He died in Berkeley, California on October 17, 2016, aged 98.

Born in Scotland on January 28, 1918 and raised in London, England, Taper came to the U.S. alone on a freighter at the age of 11. He was a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army during WWII and, immediately after it ended, became one of the “monuments men” charged with the duty of recovering paintings and sculptures looted by the Nazis. He earned a bachelor’s degree from UC Berkeley and a master’s degree in creative writing from Stanford. He used many of those skills during his reporting career at The Chronicle from 1950 to 1955.
In 1956, Taper joined the staff of The New Yorker, where he remained for three decades and, with his friend and former Chronicle reporter Kevin Wallace, wrote countless Talk of the Town stories. Taper profiled 14-year-old chess prodigy Bobby Fischer; the first prime minister of Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah; cellist Pablo Casals; and Broadway producer Jerome Robbins.
In 1963, he expanded a series of his profiles of choreographer George Balanchine into a best-selling biography, considered the definitive account of the great Russian man of dance.
In 1970, he joined the faculty of the Graduate School of Journalism at UC Berkeley, where he was best known for teaching a class on the writing of profiles and short biographies.
Taper helped found the California Shakespeare Theater in 1973.
He died in Berkeley, California on October 17, 2016, aged 98.