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Chronicling nearly a century of music, Gaby Casadesus' MyMusical Notes, recounts the French pianist's remarkable career as half of one of the most extraordinary husband and wife teams in twentieth century classical music, with her husband Robert Casadesus. Told in a lively conversational tone, she evokes the delicate balance between touring and family life, maintaining her own solo career and traveling the world while raising three children. Her decades-long teaching imparted the stylistic legacy of Debussy, Fauré and Ravel, a personal friend to both Robert and Gaby, to generations of young pianists.
In this memoir, we experience the bustling Paris of the 1920s and 30s as well as numerous adventures touring North and South America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia while championing French piano repertoire as the internationally recognized duo Robert and Gaby Casadesus. She also details her encounters and collaborations with the greatest names of 20th century classical music: Fauré, Ravel, Stravinsky, Poulenc, Bruno Walter, Toscanini, Szell, Boulez, Bernstein as well as other celebrities of the era such as Albert Einstein, with whom she played Mozart, Elsa Schiaparelli, Joan Miró and more.
Translated and republished in English for the first time as My Musical Notes: Gaby Casadesus,
A Journey in Classical Piano Between the World Wars and Beyond, this 2024 edition brings this legendary story to a larger audience.
List of contents
List of Illustrations
Foreword
by Thérèse Casadesus RawsonAcknowledgments
A Note on Translations
Chapter 1: First Meeting and Our Beginnings
Chapter 2: The Casadesus Tribe
Chapter 3: Entering the Profession
Chapter 4: The American Conservatory at Fontainebleau
Chapter 5: Two Pianos and Four Hands
Chapter 6: Building a Repertoire Intended for Tours: Our First Trip to Russia
Chapter 7: 1931: En Route to South America
Chapter 8: 1931: Finding Adventures in Each Corner of a Country
Chapter 9: At Work
Chapter 10: Discovering the New World
Chapter 11: 1937-1939: Pre-War Tours
Chapter 12: Exile in America
Chapter 13: United States, Continued: A Daughter Is Born
Chapter 14: Introducing Jean Casadesus, the Family's Third Pianist
Chapter 15: Da Capo
Chapter 16: The First Family of the Piano
Chapter 17: A Tragic Ending
Chapter 18: Life After Robert: Continuing the Legacy
Appendix: Genealogy
Chronology of tours
Discography
About the Collaborators
Index
About the author
By Gaby Casadesus - Translated by Lawrence Lockwood - With Thérèse Casadesus Rawson
