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Listen to my performance of Chanson Napolitaine by C. A. Casella fils
A second-generation member of an Italian cello-playing family, Cesare A[ugustus] de Casella (1820-1884) was born in Lisbon, Portugal, to parents from the Italian city of Genoa. He was the eldest of three sons who were taught how to play the cello by their father, Pietro Casella (1790-ca. 1858), described as the founder of the Turin school of cello playing. After the family returned to Genoa, Casella made his solo debut there at the age of 14 and studied at the local conservatory. Following Pietro’s appointment as first cellist to King Charles Albert of Sardinia, Casella spent six years playing alongside his father (and, for one season, the teenage Alfredo Piatti) in the orchestra of the Royal Theatre in Turin before resigning this position to apply himself more seriously to the study of cello and composition.
One of his early cello pieces, said to have been admired by the Sardinian king himself, was an Elegy on the death of Casella’s mother that he would continue to perform frequently. Casella received the titles of Solo Violoncellist of the royal court of Genoa and Professor of the Conservatory before creating a sensation in France, where his performances of his own compositions caused “tears to flow” and elicited flowery accounts:
Behold this fine young artiste, surrounded by a brilliant assemblage in the midst of a profound silence; his instrument is an organ which for a moment becomes part of himself….
Read on….
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