82 ❧ chapter four
Piston Sonatina, and the Handel sonatas. But the main content of our pro-
grams was provided by the Bach and Mozart sonatas to which it was becom-
ing increasingly diffi cult to make a fresh approach. I have noticed that it is
much easier for a soloist to discard his accumulated baggage and to start fresh
with a reinterpretation than it is for an instrumental ensemble. Sascha was fall-
ing more and more under the infl uence of Casals, whom he had been one
of the fi rst to seek out in Prades.^3 Much as I admired Casals and much as I
am indebted to him for some unforgettable performances and for acting indi-
rectly in many ways as one of my best teachers, there was much in his Bach
playing that I could not accept. But more and more, Casals was becoming an
unseen presence with whom I could not cope in rehearsals. It was fortunate
that an invitation to participate in the Prades Festival of 1950 was couched in
such terms that I hesitated to accept it, and that my hesitation was confi rmed
by my need to fi nish the Scarlatti book. For I’m sure that after less than a week
in the atmosphere of that festival, I would have stormed out in a cloud of blue
smoke, which is actually what I did later that year after a performance of the
Fifth Brandenburg Concerto with musicians fresh returned from Prades. I felt that
the time had come to put an end to the Bach and Mozart sonatas, and 1950–51
was our last season, although we continued in subsequent years to collaborate
on some very fi ne concerts at Dumbarton Oaks. Throughout the years of our
sonata playing, I was fully aware of what I was sacrifi cing in time and energies
that might have been devoted to solo playing, but as long as it lasted, I felt
that it was worthwhile. With its cessation, however, I took a different view of
chamber music playing than I had originally intended, and much of my origi-
nal life’s program remains to this day unrealized. Except on rare occasions, I
have participated in almost no public ensemble playing, reserving it until a
later time when my activities as a soloist might no longer be as important. But
optical diffi culties have unfortunately intervened in such fashion as to render
impossible even delayed fulfi llment of this part of my original program.
- Prades Festival, a chamber music festival established in Prades, France, by
Pablo Casals in 1950.
KKirkpatrick.indd 82irkpatrick.indd 82 2/8/2017 9:57:34 AM 2 / 8 / 2017 9 : 57 : 34 AM
