Fiesole
—  Comune  —
Città di Fiesole
The Roman theatre of Fiesole is still used.
Fiesole Location of Fiesole in Italy
Coordinates: 43°48′26″N 11°17′31″E / 43.80722°N 11.29194°E / 43.80722; 11.29194
Country	Italy
Region	Tuscany
Province	Florence (FI)
Frazioni	Anchetta, Caldine, Compiobbi, Ellera, Girone, Pian del Mugnone, Pian di San Bartolo, San Domenico
Government
• Mayor	Fabio Incatasciato
Area
• Total	42 km2 (16 sq mi)
Elevation	295 m (968 ft)
Population (1 January 2007)
• Total	14,113
• Density	340/km2 (870/sq mi)
Demonym	Fiesolani
Time zone	CET (UTC+1)
• Summer (DST)	CEST (UTC+2)
Postal code	50014
Dialing code	055
Patron saint	St. Romulus
Saint day	July 6
Website	Official website

The cathedral of Fiesole.

Arches near the Roman theatre.

San Francesco monastery

Fiesole is a town and comune of the province of Florence in the Italian region of Tuscany, on a famously scenic height above Florence, 8 km (5 mi) NE of that city. According to the 2003 census, its population was 14,100.

History[link]

Florence as seen from Fiesole.

Fiesole (Etruscan Viesul, Viśl, Vipsul) was probably founded in the 9th-8th century BC, as it was an important member of the Etruscan confederacy, as may be seen from the remains of its ancient walls.

The first recorded mention on the town dates to 283 BC, when the town, then known as Faesulae, was conquered by the Romans. In pagan antiquity it was the seat of a famous school of augurs, and every year twelve young men were sent thither from Rome to study the art of divination. Sulla colonized it with veterans, who afterwards, under the leadership of Gaius Mallius, supported the cause of Catilina.^[1][2]

Fiesole was the scene of Stilicho's great victory over the Germanic hordes of the Vandals and Suevi under Radagaisus in 406.^[3] During the Gothic War (536-53) the town was several times besieged. In 539 Justinus, the Byzantine general, captured it and razed its fortifications.

It was an independent town for several centuries in the early Middle Ages, no less powerful than Florence in the valley below, and many wars arose between them; in 1010 and 1025 Fiesole was sacked by the Florentines, before it was conquered by Florence in 1125, and its leading families obliged to take up their residence in Florence. Dante reflects this rivalry in his Divine Comedy by referring to "the beasts of Fiesole." (Inferno XV.73). ^[4]

By the 14th century, rich Florentines had countryside villas in Fiesole, and one of them is the setting of the frame narrative of the Decameron. Boccaccio's poem Il Ninfale fiesolano is a mythological account of the origins of the community.^[5] Robert Browning mentions “sober pleasant Fiesole” several times in his poem "Andrea Del Sarto".

Main sights[link]

• Remnants of Etruscan walls.
• Roman baths.
• Roman theatre.
• Palazzo Comunale (Town Hall) of the 14th century.
• The cathedral of Fiesole (Il Duomo), containing the shrine of St. Romulus, martyr, according to legend the first Bishop of Fiesole, and that of his martyred companions, also the shrine of St. Donatus of Fiesole.
• The Badia or ancient cathedral of St. Romulus, built in 1028 by Bishop Jacopo Bavaro with materials taken from several older edifices, at the foot of the hill on which Fiesole stands, supposed to cover the site of the martyrdom of St. Romulus; it contains notable sculptures by Mino da Fiesole. The old cathedral became a Benedictine abbey, which passed into the hands of the regular canons of Lateran. It once possessed a valuable library, long since dispersed. The abbey was closed in 1778.
• The room in the bishop's palace where St. Andrew Corsini lived and died.
• The little church of the Primerana in the cathedral square, where the same saint was warned by Our Lady of his approaching death. Built in 996 and further expanded in medieval times, has maintained the Gothic presbytery from that period. It received a new façade in the late 16th century, with graffito decoration by Ludovico Buti. The interior, on a single hall, has a 13th century panel portraying Madonna with Child. In the transept are two marble bas-reliefs by Francesco da Sangallo, and a terracotta from Andrea della Robbia's workshop.
• The church of S. Alessandro, with the shrine of St. Alexander, bishop and martyr.
• The monastery of S. Francesco on the crest of the hill, with the cells of St. Bernardine of Siena and seven Franciscan Beati.
• San Girolamo, the home of Venerable Carlo dei Conti Guidi, founder of the Hieronymites of Fiesole (1360).
• San Domenico, the novice-home of Fra Angelico and of St. Antoninus of Florence.
• Fontanelle, a villa near S. Domenico, where St. Aloysius came to live in the hot summer months, when a page at the court of Grand Duke Francesco de' Medici.
• Villa Medici in Fiesole.
• Villa Le Balze
• Villa Palmieri
• Villa Schifanoia.
• Fonte Lucente, where a miraculous crucifix is greatly revered.
• Castello di Vincigliata

In the neighbourhood are:

• Monte Senario, the cradle of the Servite Order, where its seven holy founders lived in great austerity and were cheered at their death by the songs of angels
• S. Martino di Mensola, with the body of St. Andrew, an Irish saint, still incorrupt.

Famous residents[link]

• Francesco Landini (c.1325–1397), composer, singer, poet, organist and instrument maker
• Lorenzo Monaco (1370–1424), painter
• the greatest name associated with the city is that of Fra Angelico or Blessed Giovanni Angelico, called da Fiesole (1387–1455). His baptismal name was Guido, but entering the convent of the Reformed Dominicans at Fiesole, he took Giovanni as name in religion; the surname Angelico 'angelic' was afterwards given to him in allusion to the beauty of his works and purity of spirit.
• Mino da Fiesole, Florentine sculptor (c.1429—1484) and painter
• Andrea Barzagli, soccer player, member of the 2006 Italian World Cup champion team.
• Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas spent their summers in Fiesole before the First World War.^[6]
• Frank Lloyd Wright for some time in 1910
• Caterina Bueno (1943–2007), singer and folk music historian

Twin towns[link]

• Tucson, Arizona, USA

See also[link]

• Diocese of Fiesole

References[link]

• Mauro Marrani, Il contado Fiesolano. Grafica European Center of Fine Arts, Firenze 2010. ISBN 978-88-95450-34-6
•  "Fiesole". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. 1913. 

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Fiesole

Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article Fiesole.

• Official site
• History and pictures of Fiesole
• Satellite image from Google Maps

The neutrality of this article is disputed. Please see the discussion on the talk page. Please do not remove this message until the dispute is resolved. (September 2011)

Pau Casals

Pau Casals i Defilló (Catalan pronunciation: [ˈpaw kəˈzaɫs]; December 29, 1876 – October 22, 1973), known during his professional career as Pablo Casals,^[1][2][3] was a Spanish Catalan cellist and conductor. He is generally regarded as the pre-eminent cellist of the first half of the 20th century, and one of the greatest cellists of all time. He made many recordings throughout his career, of solo, chamber, and orchestral music, also as conductor, but he is perhaps best remembered for the recordings of the Bach Cello Suites he made from 1936 to 1939.

Biography[link]

Childhood and early years[link]

Casals was born in El Vendrell, Catalonia, Spain. His father, Carlos Casals i Ribes (1852–1908), was a parish organist and choirmaster. He gave Casals instruction in piano, song, violin, and organ. He was also a very strict disciplinarian. When Casals was young his father would pull the piano out from the wall and have him and his brother, Arturo, stand behind it and name the notes and the scales that his father was playing. At age four Casals could play the violin, piano and flute; at the age of six he played the violin well enough to perform a solo in public. His first encounter with a cello-like instrument was from witnessing a local traveling Catalan musician, who played a cello-strung broom handle. Upon request, his father built him a crude cello, using a gourd as a sound-box. When Casals was eleven, he first heard the real cello performed by a group of traveling musicians, and decided to dedicate himself to the instrument.^{[citation needed]}

In 1888 his mother, Pilar Defilló de Casals, who was born in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico of Catalonian ancestry, took him to Barcelona, where he enrolled in the Escola Municipal de Música.^[4] There he studied cello, theory, and piano. In 1890, when he was 13, he discovered in a second-hand sheet music store in Barcelona a tattered copy of Bach's six cello suites. He spent the next 13 years practicing them every day before he would perform them in public for the first time.^[5] Casals would later make his own personal version of the six suites.^[6] He made prodigious progress as a cellist; on February 23, 1891 he gave a solo recital in Barcelona at the age of fourteen. He graduated from the Escola with honours five years later.

Youth and studies[link]

In 1893, another Spanish composer Isaac Albéniz heard him playing in a trio in a café and gave him a letter of introduction to the private secretary to María Cristina, the Queen Regent. Casals was asked to play at informal concerts in the palace, and was granted a royal stipend to study composition at the Conservatorio de Música y Declamación in Madrid with Víctor Mirecki. He also played in the newly organized Quartet Society.

In 1895 he went to Paris, where, having lost his stipend from Catalonia, he earned a living by playing second cello in the theater orchestra of the Folies Marigny. In 1896, he returned to Catalonia and received an appointment to the faculty of the Escola Municipal de Música in Barcelona. He was also appointed principal cellist in the orchestra of Barcelona's opera house, the Liceu. In 1897 he appeared as soloist with the Madrid Symphony Orchestra, and was awarded the Order of Carlos III from the Queen.^{[citation needed]}

International career[link]

In 1899, Casals played at The Crystal Palace in London, and later for Queen Victoria at Osborne House, her summer residence, accompanied by Ernest Walker. On November 12, and December 17, 1899, he appeared as a soloist at Lamoureux Concerts in Paris, to great public and critical acclaim. He toured Spain and the Netherlands with the pianist Harold Bauer in 1900–1901; in 1901–1902 he made his first tour of the United States; and in 1903 toured South America.

On January 15, 1904, Casals was invited to play at the White House for President Theodore Roosevelt. On March 9, of that year he made his debut at Carnegie Hall in New York, playing Richard Strauss's Don Quixote under the baton of the composer. In 1906 he became associated with the talented young Portuguese cellist Guilhermina Suggia,^[7] who studied with him and began to appear in concerts as Mme. P. Casals-Suggia, although they were not legally married. Their relationship ended in 1912.

The New York Times of April 9, 1911 announced that Pablo Casals would perform at the London Musical Festival to be held at the Queen's Hall on the second day of the Festival (May 23,). The piece chosen was Haydn's Cello Concerto in D and Casals would later join Fritz Kreisler for Brahms's Double Concerto for Violin and Cello.^[2]

In 1914 Casals married the American socialite and singer Susan Metcalfe; they were separated in 1928, but did not divorce until 1957.

Although Casals made his first recordings in 1915 (a series for Columbia), it would not be until 1926 that he again released a recording (on the Victor label).^[3]

Back in Paris, Casals organized a trio with the pianist Alfred Cortot and the violinist Jacques Thibaud; they played concerts and made recordings until 1937. Casals also became interested in conducting, and in 1919 he organized, in Barcelona, the Orquesta Pau Casals and led its first concert on October 13, 1920. With the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in 1936, the Orquesta Pau Casals ceased its activities.

Casals was an ardent supporter of the Spanish Republican government, and after its defeat vowed not to return to Spain until democracy was restored. Casals performed at the Gran Teatre del Liceu on October 19, 1938, possibly his last performance in Catalonia before his exile.^[8]

He settled in the French village of Prada de Conflent, on the Spanish frontier; between 1939 and 1942 he made sporadic appearances as a cellist in the unoccupied zone of southern France and in Switzerland. So fierce was his opposition to the dictatorial regime of Francisco Franco in Spain that he refused to appear in countries that recognized the authoritarian Spanish government. He made a notable exception when he took part in a concert of chamber music in the White House on November 13, 1961, at the invitation of President John F. Kennedy, whom he admired. On December 6, 1963, Casals was awarded the U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom.^[9]

Presidential Medal of Freedom

Throughout most of his professional career, he played on a cello that was labeled and attributed to "Carlo Tononi ... 1733" but after playing it for 50 years it was discovered to have been created by the Venetian luthier Matteo Goffriller around 1700. It was acquired by Casals in 1913.^[10] He also played another cello by Goffriller dated 1710, and a Tononi from 1730.

Prades Festivals[link]

In 1950 he resumed his career as conductor and cellist at the Prades Festival in Conflent, organized in commemoration of the bicentenary of the death of Johann Sebastian Bach; Casals agreed to participate on condition that all proceeds were to go to a refugee hospital in nearby Perpignan.^[3]

In 1952, Casals met Marta Angélica Montañez y Martinez, a 17-year-old Puerto Rican student who had gone to Spain to participate in the Festival. Casals was very impressed with her and encouraged her to return to Mannes College of Music in New York to continue her studies. He continued leading the Prades Festivals until 1966.^{[citation needed]}

Puerto Rico[link]

Casals first traveled to Puerto Rico in 1955, inaugurating the annual Casals Festival the next year. In 1955 Casals married as his second wife long-time associate Francesca Vidal de Capdevila, who died that same year. On April 3, 1957 (or August 3), at 80, Casals married 20-year-old Marta Montañez y Martinez.^[11] They made their permanent residence in the town of Ceiba, and lived in a house called "El Pesebre" (The Manger).^[12] He made an impact in the Puerto Rican music scene, by founding the Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra in 1958, and the Conservatory of Music of Puerto Rico in 1959.

Later years[link]

In the 1960s, Casals gave many master classes throughout the world in places such as Gstaad, Zermatt, Tuscany, Berkeley, and Marlboro (where he also conducted and recorded unique versions of the six Brandenburg Concerti)^{[citation needed]}. Several of these master classes were televised.

In 1961, he performed at the White House by invitation of President Kennedy. This performance was recorded and released as an album.

Casals was also a composer. Perhaps his most effective work is La Sardana, for an ensemble of cellos, which he composed in 1926. His oratorio El Pessebre was performed for the first time in Acapulco, Mexico, on December 17, 1960. He also presented it to the United Nations during their anniversary in 1963. He was initiated as an honorary member of the Epsilon Iota Chapter of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia music fraternity at The Florida State University in 1963.^[13] He was later awarded the fraternity's Charles E. Lutton Man of Music Award in 1973.

One of his last compositions was the "Hymn of the United Nations".^[14] He conducted its first performance in a special concert at the United Nations on October 24, 1971, two months before his 95th birthday. On that day, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, U Thant, awarded Pau Casals the U.N. Peace Medal in recognition of his stance for peace, justice and freedom.^[15] Casals accepted the medal and made his famous "I am a Catalan" speech,^[16] where he stated that Catalonia had the first democratic parliament, long before England did. (In fact, both Iceland and the Isle of Man had parliaments before Catalonia.]

Casals' memoirs were taken down by Albert E. Kahn, and published as Joys and Sorrows: Pablo Casals, His Own Story (1970).

Death[link]

Casals died in 1973 in San Juan, Puerto Rico, at the age of 96 and was buried at the Puerto Rico National Cemetery. He did not live to see the end of the Franco dictatorial regime, but he was posthumously honoured by the Spanish government under King Juan Carlos I which, in 1976, issued a commemorative postage stamp to Pau Casals in honour of the centenary of his birth.^[17] In 1979 his remains were laid to rest in his hometown of El Vendrell, Catalonia. In 1989, Casals was posthumously awarded a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.^[18]

Legacy[link]

Centenary statue, Montserrat

The International Pablo Casals Cello Competition is held in Kronberg and Frankfurt am Main, Germany, under the auspices of the Kronberg Academy once every four years, starting in 2000, to discover and further the careers of the future cello elite, and is supported by the Pau Casals Foundation, under the patronage of Marta Casals Istomin. One of the prizes is the use of one of the Gofriller cellos owned by Casals. The first top prize was awarded in 2000 to Claudio Bohórquez.

American comedian George Carlin, in his interview for the Archive of American Television, refers to Casals when discussing the restless nature of an artist's persona. As Carlin states, when Casals (then aged 93) was asked why he continued to practice the cello three hours a day, Casals replied, "'I'm beginning to notice some improvement...' [A]nd that's the thing that's in me. I notice myself getting better at this," Carlin continued.

In Puerto Rico, the Casals Festival is still celebrated annually. There is also a museum dedicated to the life of Casals located in Old San Juan. On October 3, 2009, Sala Sinfonica Pablo Casals, a symphony hall named in Casals' honor, opened in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The $34 million building, designed by Rodolfo Fernandez, is the latest addition to the Centro de Bellas Artes complex. It is the new home of the Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra.

In Tokyo, the Casals Hall opened in 1987 as a venue for chamber music.^[19]

Socio-political columnist and economist David P. Goldman has called Caslas the greatest classical musician of the 20th century.^[20]

Partial Discography[link]

• 1926–1928: Casals, Jacques Thibaud and Alfred Cortot – the first trios of Schubert, Schumann and Mendelssohn, the Beethoven "Archduke," Haydn's G Major and Beethoven's "Kakadu" Variations (Recorded in London)
  

  

  Pau Casals bust, Wolfenbüttel, Germany
• 1929, Brahms: Double Concerto with Thibaud and Cortot conducting Casals' own orchestra.
• 1929: Dvorak and Brahms Concerti
• 1929: Beethoven: Fourth Symphony (Recorded in Barcelona)
• 1930: Beethoven: Cello Sonata Op. 69, with Otto Schulhof.
• 1936–1939: Bach: Cello Suites
• 1936: Beethoven: Cello Sonata Op. 102 No. 1; and Brahms: Cello Sonata Op. 99, both with Mieczysław Horszowski.
• 1936: Boccherini: Cello Concerto in B-flat; and Bruch: Kol Nidrei – London Symphony conducted by Landon Ronald.
• 1937: Dvořák: Cello Concerto – Czech Philharmonic conducted by George Szell.
• 1939: Beethoven: Cello Sonatas Nos. 1, 2, and 5, with Mieczysław Horszowski.
• 1945: Elgar and Haydn Cello Concertos – BBC Symphony conducted by Sir Adrian Boult.
• 1950: The first of the Prades Festival recordings on Columbia, including:
  • Bach: Sonatas for Viola da Gamba, BWV 1027–1029, with Paul Baumgartner
  • Schumann: Fünf Stücke im Volkston, with Leopold Mannes
  • Schumann: Cello Concerto, with Casals conducting from the cello.
• 1951: At the Perpignan Festival, including:
  • Beethoven: Cello Sonata Op. 5 No. 2, and three sets of Variations, with Rudolf Serkin
  • Beethoven: Trios, Op. 1 No. 2, Op. 70 No. 2, Op. 97, and the Clarinet Op. 11 transcription; also
  • Schubert: Trio No. 1, D.898, all with Alexander Schneider and Eugene Istomin.
• 1952: At Prades, including:
  • Brahms: Trio Op. 8, with Isaac Stern and Myra Hess
  • Brahms: Trio Op. 87, with Joseph Szigeti and Myra Hess
  • Schumann: Trio Op. 63, and Schubert: Trio No. 2, D.929, both with Alexander Schneider and Mieczysław Horszowski
  • Schubert: C Major Quintet, with Isaac Stern, Alexander Schneider, Milton Katims, and Paul Tortelier
  • Brahms: Sextet No. 1, again with Stern, Schneider, and Katims, plus Milton Thomas and Madeline Foley
• 1953: At Prades, including:
  • Beethoven: Cello Sonatas Nos. 1, 3, 4, and 5, with Rudolf Serkin
  • Beethoven: Trios Op. 1 No. 1, and Op. 70 No. 1, with Joseph Fuchs and Eugene Istomin
  • Schumann: Cello Concerto in A minor, Op. 129, with Eugene Ormandy conducting the Festival orchestra
• 1954: At Prades (all live performances), including:
  • Beethoven: Cello Sonata No. 5, and Op. 66 Variations, with Mieczysław Horszowski
  • Beethoven: Trios Op. 70 No. 1, and Op. 121a, with Szymon Goldberg and Rudolf Serkin
• 1955: At Prades (all live performances), including:
  • Brahms: Trios Nos. 1–3, with Yehudi Menuhin and Eugene Istomin
  • Brahms: Clarinet Trio Op. 114, with clarinetist David Oppenheim and Eugene Istomin
  • Beethoven: Trio Op. 70 No. 2, with Szymon Goldberg and Rudolf Serkin
• 1956: At Prades (all live performances), including:
  • Bach: Sonata BWV 1027 for Viola da Gamba, with Mieczysław Horszowski
  • Schumann: Trio No. 2, with Yehudi Menuhin and Mieczysław Horszowski
  • Schumann: Trio No. 3, with Sándor Végh and Rudolf Serkin
• 1958: At Beethoven-Haus in Bonn (all live performances), including:
  • Beethoven: Sonata Op. 5 No. 1, with Wilhelm Kempff
  • Beethoven: Sonatas Op. 5 No. 2, Op. 102 No. 2, and the Horn Op. 17 transcription, with Mieczysław Horszowski
  • Beethoven: Trios Op. 1 No. 3, and Op. 97, with Sándor Végh and Mieczysław Horszowski
  • Beethoven: Trio Op. 70 No. 1, with Sándor Végh and Karl Engel
• 1959: At Prades (all live performances), including:
  • Haydn: "Farewell" Symphony (No. 45) and Mozart "Linz" Symphony (No. 36)
  • Beethoven: Trio Op. 1 No. 3, with Yehudi and Hephzibah Menuhin
  • Schubert: String Quintet, with the Budapest String Quartet
• 1961: Mendelssohn: Piano Trio No. 1 with Alexander Schneider and Mieczysław Horszowski (Recorded live November 13, 1961 at the White House)
• 1963: Beethoven: Eighth Symphony
• 1963: Mendelssohn: Fourth Symphony, at Marlboro
• 1964–65: Bach: Brandenburg Concerti, at Marlboro
• 1966: Bach: Orchestral Suites, at Marlboro
• 1969: Beethoven: First, Second, Fourth, Sixth ("Pastorale"), and Seventh Symphonies
• 1974: El Pessebre (The Manger) oratorio

See also[link]

• C-32 (highway), a highway in Catalonia named after Casals
• List of Catalans
• List of Puerto Ricans
• Windjammer (1958 film)

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Joys and Sorrows; Reflections, Pau Casals, (1973) ISBN 0-671-21774-7
• Song of the birds, Julian Lloyd Webber, (1985) ISBN 0-86051-305-X
• Just Play Naturally, Vivien Mackie (in conversation with Joe Armstrong), (2002) ISBN 978-0-9717004-0-6

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Pau Casals

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Pablo Casals

• Pau Casals Foundation
• Photo feature on L'espace Casals in Prades
• Pau Casals' home town of El Vendrell
• Speach of Pau Casals on October 24, 1971 in the ONU
• Casals Festival, San Juan, Puerto Rico
• Festival Casals de Prades Prades, Pyrénées-Orientales, France
• 'In search of Pablo Casals' on Overgrown Path music website
• Pablo Casals at Allmusic
• Historic 26min video of Pablo Casals' exiled in Prada 1939–1942 – J.S.Bach Suite n.1 in the Abbey of Saint-Michel-de-Cuxa * Discography and bibliography
• Trio with Alfred Cortot and Jacques Thibaud – Performances records, Recordings and discography (Youngrok Lee's Classical Music page)