Hommage to Gaspar Cassadó

Gaspar Cassadó has been my favorite cellist-composer for half of my life now. His music provides variety and imagination. His arrangements are especially well-crafted. As someone who arranges music almost daily, I look up to Cassadó for inspiration. Although the majority of our repertoire is different, our taste in music is similar. Cassadó is one person I wish I could spend a week with (not just a day) talking about music.

Most of us play the music we love. Likewise, we arrange music we love, at least the music we arrange for ourselves to play. When I look at Cassadó's list of arrangements, I see some of my all-time favorite works: C.P.E. Bach's A-major Cello Concerto, Tchaikovsky's 18 Piano Pieces, Chopin's "Aeolian Harp" Etude, Saint-Saëns's Bourree for Left Hand, Tchaikovsky's Fifth Symphony slow movement, Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier. Some of Cassadó's works are not readily available, like the ones that only exist in manuscript form. Because I love the works in his catalog so much, I started making my own arrangements of these pieces as an homage to my favorite cellist-composer. I have never seen his arrangements of the Saint-Saens Bourree or Tchaikovsky's Fifth, but I know how I would like to interpret them. Last year, I made an arrangement of the Saint-Saëns for cello solo (available here). I'm currently working on an arrangement of Tchaikovsky's Fifth slow movement for cello and piano. As for Der Rosenkavalier, that's a future project.

Something I've found interesting is Cassadó's choice of F major for his arrangements of C.P.E. Bach's Concerto, Chopin's "Aeolian Harp" Etude, Mozart's Piano Four-hands Sonata, Liszt's Liebestraum No. 3, and, of course, J.S. Bach's Fourth Suite. Cassadó definitely changed the keys of other works he arranged (something I'm reluctant to do), but it's curious why he chose F major for these five works. C.P.E. Bach works perfectly in the original key of A major. Other arrangers like Ferdinand Pollain and Lynn Harrell have transposed parts of the concerto up an octave, but I'm partial to the original key and octave. Chopin is not super idiomatic in F major (original key is A-flat). I think I would prefer the "Aeolian Harp" in G or even C major. Mozart works really well in F major (original key B-flat). I admire the authentic approach that Cassadó took in this four-hand sonata.

Of the five pieces transposed into F major, we can hear Cassadó's own recording of Bach's E-flat Suite. No doubt, it's much brighter than the original E-flat major. Upon listening to Cassadó's recording, we note that he avails himself of the open A string every chance he gets. Perhaps this is a reaction to the E-flat Suite being such a monster to play, hardly ever using open strings in the original key. Bach's Suites Nos. 1-5 only go up to the written G in the fourth position. By transposing the E-flat Suite to F, a handful of A harmonics become available to Cassadó. But he plays each one solidly with vibrato. As a gift to my readers, I would like to include here my own version of Bach's E-flat Suite transposed to F, as an hommage to Cassadó. This edition is largely based on my Bach Suites Edition. I entered just a handful of notes that Cassadó plays on his recording. The slurring in my edition is still according to Kellner's manuscript, as are dynamics. Thank you for supporting my work.

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