The late Israeli musician Matti Caspi was laid to rest on Monday at the "Menuha Nehona" Cemetery in Kfar Saba. Among the artists who attended were Miki Gavrielov, Hanan Yovel, and Yehuda Eder.
His daughter Shon eulogized him, saying, “My dear father, I'll love you forever and ever. You are a musical genius, my genius, my nightingale with the most beautiful voice in the world. All artists draw inspiration from you; you are one of a kind. You are the father I admired most and will continue to admire forever. You were and will forever be the legendary soundtrack of all of us.”
“Throughout this entire past year, we drove you to hospitals and fed you, we took care of you,” she continued. “Dear mom took care of you 24/7 and was a lioness and never gave up. The family and many close friends helped you try to recover. We did everything in our power to help you heal. You promised me that you would return to sing on stage. You were destined to sing with angels, Dad.”
Artists and family eulogize Caspi
Singer Riki Gal also spoke, saying to the family, “I know that your love sustained Matti until the very last moment. He was so grateful to you for that. There were moments when he suddenly recovered and tried to play and to go down to the beach, and we all thought he would return and perform again. But it did not come to pass. I personally thank you, and I want you to sing with me in a full voice, because Matti is on his way to eternity, but he is still here above us, and he will hear you.”
Composer and conductor Gil Shohat recalled Caspi’s humor. “I have been crying for two days already, so I will say something a bit funny about Matti,” he said. “He was a man with a very particular sense of humor. I performed Schubert and told the audience he wrote the piece in a year. Then Matti came on; he played ‘Brit Olam’ and said, ‘I wrote Brit Olam during an afternoon nap.’ That is Matti Caspi with his quiet, penetrating humor.”
“Matti, you are a riddle, you are an enigma, I do not know who went through all this literature of yours,” Shohat added. “One thing is certain: your music came out of you, and it is forever. When we lose a close person, a ray of light from them remains forever. Every person. But there are people whose creation, whose language, will stay with us for thousands of years, perhaps forever. When I was a small child, I would listen to records of Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, and Matti Caspi. Matti, I already miss you.”
Bar, Caspi’s son, spoke about his relationship with his father. “I got to know my father in parts,” he said. “The larger parts were mainly on the radio or on television. Sometimes a song would be played, and I would feel warmth in my heart, and then sadness and pain that I was not closer to him.”
“Another part was on stage,” he continued. “Sometimes I would come just for the jokes, or to see people applauding him, and after the performance to go backstage just to hear him say, ‘That’s my son,’ and to feel that I belonged, even a little. There were parts when I was alone with him. That was usually short, but special, and even then, in the middle, people would come up and shake his hand, and sometimes it was annoying because I wanted to be alone with him.”
Singer Danny Robas also eulogized Caspi. “We all talk about Matti’s music, but thank you to his family, who were with him in the difficult moments along the way and supported him,” he said. “Matti was the snowy peak of the mountain, where the air is thin. He was the greatest of the Israeli musicians of our generation, and I had the tremendous honor of working with him, singing with him, playing with him, even writing with him.”
“Even after 40 years of working together, my heart would still leap when I saw Matti’s name on my phone screen,” Robas added. “Thank you, Matti, for the wonderful songs that will stay with us forever. I know this because my children play them, and you [in attendance] will make sure that your children play them.”
More family, a producer, and the Tel Aviv Mayor speak
Producer Yair Dori said there had been hope until the end. “There was hope in the heart that he would manage to get through this obstacle as well,” he said. “Since his illness was discovered, we hoped he would come out of it. Matti believed this and often stated how much strength his beloved wife gave him. But it was not enough. The hope faded. With his passing, a void has been created that will never be filled. Rest in peace, dear Matti.”
His daughter Sivan also spoke. “My dear and eternal father, you will remain with us forever, even if not physically, in the heart, in the air, and in every beautiful note of your music,” she said. “This is how I will always remember you, healthy, laughing, fooling around like a child. We fought with all our strength to keep you with us, but apparently, you are needed more in heaven. We will meet again. Love forever, little Sivan under the table.”
Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai also paid tribute, noting the importance of Caspi's music. “This is the man thanks to whose melodies, arrangements, and playing we learned, among other things, what love is and what a place for concern looks like,” he said, “and because of whom we all long for the days of Binyamina and ache over forbidden children. This is the man who explained to us that elusive feeling one experiences when becoming parents, and that we did not know how to name, our second childhood.”
“The man through whose fingers and feverish mind Israeli music was shaped and became a patchwork quilt woven with influences of funk and jazz, classical music and Brazilian music,” Huldai continued. “The man whose collaborations, Ehud Manor and Sasha Argov, Riki Gal and Shlomo Gronich, created some of the most beautiful and most important albums and songs that we have had and will ever have.”