“Pau Casals, Music for Peace”: an exhibition at Palau Robert celebrating the legacy of an artist who placed his art at the service of peace

Pau Casals was one of the 20th century’s towering musicians, yet his legacy extends far beyond the concert stage. He revolutionised cello technique, brought Bach’s music to audiences worldwide, and turned his international stature into an instrument to champion freedom, human rights, and peace. This dual dimension – artistic and human – serves as the central thread running through the exhibition Pau Casals, música per la pau, on view free of charge at Barcelona’s Palau Robert until 10 January.

Structured across five distinct sections, the showcase coincides with the 150th anniversary of the El Vendrell-born musician’s birth, tracing his artistic path alongside his unwavering commitment to peace. Photographs, personal memorabilia, original archival documents, and audiovisual installations offer an intimate perspective on an artist who understood that great talent carries a shared responsibility towards the world.

A life between music and peace

Born in El Vendrell in 1876, Pau Casals rose to prominence as a cellist, conductor, and composer. The exhibition’s introductory section charts the biography of one of the 20th century’s defining musical figures.

The artist transformed cello playing, refining bow control and fingerboard technique to emerge as the instrument’s first modern virtuoso. Beyond the stage, he was a tireless advocate for human rights. Forced into exile following the Spanish Civil War, he never ceased speaking out against injustice and standing up for peace.

Music: far more than a printed score

For Pau Casals, technical perfection was never enough. Music had to move the listener, stir emotions, and forge a genuine connection with the audience. He viewed musical scores as living creations, open to interpretation rather than texts to be rendered mechanically.

One of the focal points in this second section is devoted to Johann Sebastian Bach’s Cello Suites, which Casals discovered in Barcelona when he was just thirteen years old. Casals brought them to the broader public, establishing them as cornerstones of the cello repertoire. Original documents and two large-scale audiovisual displays unpack his approach to interpreting and understanding music.

“For Pau Casals, technical perfection was never enough. Music had to move the listener, stir emotions, and forge a genuine connection with the audience”

When silence becomes protest

Casals’s career was equally defined by the seismic conflicts of the 20th century. A staunch defender of democracy and human rights, he refused to perform in countries where basic freedoms were crushed, including Nazi Germany, Soviet Russia, and Francoist Spain.

Following the end of the Second World War, he turned his musical silence into an active form of protest against the Allied powers’ accommodation of Franco’s dictatorship. In parallel, he assisted thousands of Republican refugees and victims of the conflict. This steadfast commitment comes to the fore in the exhibition’s third section, featuring large-format photographs and Casals’s own words explaining why an artist could never stand aloof from injustice.

A global voice for peace

Casals’s pacifist crusade took on a worldwide dimension, particularly during the Cold War, when the nuclear threat spurred his appeals for dialogue between nations and his advocacy for the role of the United Nations. Nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1958, he performed before the UN on three occasions and played at the White House in 1961 at the invitation of President John F. Kennedy. In his final years, he conducted his oratorio El Pessebre across more than fifty cities worldwide in an international tour he christened the Crusade for Peace.

The exhibition invites visitors to revisit these moments inside a small auditorium screening archival footage accompanied by El cant dels ocells and several of the maestro’s historic speeches. On display are seminal documents, including his Nobel nomination and Kennedy’s personal letter of gratitude.

A living legacy

The retrospective concludes with reflections from figures such as Albert Einstein, Thomas Mann, and Zubin Mehta, alongside contemporary interviews with today’s musicians evaluating the enduring relevance of his message.

Curated by Núria Ballester, director of the Museu Pau Casals, the exhibition is organised by the Generalitat de Catalunya alongside the Fundació Pau Casals and the ”la Caixa” Foundation. Following its Barcelona run, the showcase will travel to CaixaForum Madrid in February before heading to the Museu Pau Casals in El Vendrell.