The Congress of Deputies will host this Monday, for the first time, an institutional event on the occasion of the International Day of Peace, in which tribute will be paid to the Catalan musician Pau Casals, whose birth will be 150 years in 2026. The ceremony will be attended by the president of the Generalitat, the socialist Salvador Illa, along with other authorities.
Cellist, conductor, composer, educator, and humanist, Casals is considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century and one of the most universal figures of Catalan culture, recognized for his firm commitment to peace and Human Rights.
The event will begin at 6:00 PM with the intervention of the president of Congress, the socialist Francina Armengol. After her speech, the general director of the Pau Casals Foundation, Jordi Pardo, will take the floor to present the living legacy of the artist. Next, journalist Iñaki Gabilondo and actress and singer Ana Belén will hold a dialogue about his figure and his defense of peace.
It is expected that representatives of the Congress and Senate Tables, as well as members of the parliamentary groups of both chambers and high authorities of the State, including the Catalan president, Salvador Illa, in addition to patrons and members of the Pau Casals Foundation, will attend.
SPEECH AND MUSICAL PIECES BY CASALS
During the commemoration, fragments of the speech that Casals delivered before the United Nations in 1958 will be heard, and the interpretation of several musical pieces by Bach, Granados, and Falla, among other authors, will be offered, performed by Ettore Pagano on cello and Yoko Suzuki on piano.
Specifically, in the hemicycle, the Prelude, Sarabande, and Gigue from the First Suite by Johann Sebastian Bach will be performed; the Intermezzo from the opera 'Goyescas' by Enrique Granados; the movements 'Nana' and 'Jota' from the work 'Suite Populaire Espagnole' by Manuel de Falla; and, as a closing, 'El Cant dels Ocells' (The Song of the Birds) by Pau Casals.