CelloLab

With the participants of the’ Ghost Pastoral Project’, the latest CelloLab in the Pau Casals Museum,Vendrell- Catalan capital of culture 2020– we are very happy to adhere to the Beethoven Pastoral Project!

We have called this group composition, La Sardana Pastoral.

By afternoon we were tired of working around the second half of the GHOST trio – gloomy, mysterious and disturbing – and picked a lively theme from the Pastoral symphony. We first made an arrangement of the theme we could play as a group of cellos, and then the exercises led to variations full of life and joy, which sounded something  between Stravinsky’s’ Petrushka’ and Martinu when he imitates  the ringing of bells.

We called our group composition ‘Sardana Pastoral‘. This is our contribution to the Project, as well as the thoughts  about climate and social emergency we had time to share with each other over lunch.

Young people were surprised by the apparent passivity of older people and only understood them when they considered the great stress of this generation, including their parents, in pushing life and families forward. As a directly connected reflection, they thought that only salvation from the ecological crisis would be possible with a very sharp change in social and economic systems.

Following the outbreak of the pandemic, the CelloLab participants I had the opportunity to speak with, vehemently emphasized the need for change that the pandemic had brought to the forefront.

Although very dissatisfied with having to cripple so many aspects of their lives, they are hopeful that the hard lessons of this global tragedy will force governments to look for new ways to function and for citizens to be more active in the genesis of these changes.

The participants were excited to work within the Museum, the former summerhouse of the great cellist and humanist Pau Casals. They felt the strength and courage conveyed to them by his spirit; a ghost full of wisdom and integrity present in every room.