- Pablo de Sarasate
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Pablo Sarasate 
Pablo de SarasateBackground information Birth name Pablo Martín Melitón de Sarasate y Navascués Born 10 March 1844
Pamplona, SpainDied 20 September 1908 (aged 64)
Biarritz, FranceGenres Classical Occupations Composer, conductor, violinist Years active 1852–1904 Notable instruments Violin
Boissier Stradivarius 1713
Sarasate Stradivarius 1724Pablo Martín Melitón de Sarasate y Navascués (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈpaβlo saɾaˈsate]; 10 March 1844 – 20 September 1908) was a Navarrese Spanish violinist and composer of the Romantic period.
Contents
Career
Pablo Sarasate was born in Pamplona, Navarre, the son of an artillery bandmaster. He began studying the violin with his father at the age of five and later took lessons from a local teacher but his musical talent became evident early on and he appeared in his first public concert in La Coruña at the age of eight. His performance was well-received, and caught the attention of a wealthy patron who provided the funding for Sarasate to study under Manuel Rodríguez Saez in Madrid where he gained the favor of Queen Isabel II. Later, as his abilities developed, he was sent to study under Jean-Delphin Alard at the Paris Conservatoire at the age of twelve. There, at seventeen, Sarasate entered a competition for the Premier Prix and won his first prize, the Conservatoire's highest honour.
Sarasate, who had been playing in public since childhood, made his Paris debut as a concert violinist in 1860, and played in London the following year. Over the course of his career, he toured many parts of the world, performing in Europe, North America, and South America. His artistic pre-eminence was due principally to the purity of his tone, which was free from any tendency towards the sentimental or rhapsodic, and to that impressive facility of execution that made him a virtuoso. In his early career, Sarasate performed mainly opera fantasies, most notably the Carmen Fantasy, and various other pieces that he had composed. The popularity of Sarasate's Spanish flavor in his compositions is reflected in the work of his contemporaries. For example, the influences of Spanish music can be heard in such notable works as Édouard Lalo's Symphonie Espagnole which was dedicated to Sarasate, Georges Bizet's Carmen, and Camille Saint-Saëns' Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso, written expressly for Sarasate and dedicated to him.
Of Sarasate's idiomatic writing for his instrument, the playwright and music critic George Bernard Shaw once declared that though there were many composers of music for the violin, there were but few composers of violin music. Of Sarasate's talents as performer and composer, Shaw said that he "left criticism gasping miles behind him." Sarasate's own compositions are mainly show-pieces designed to demonstrate his exemplary technique (bias shown, needs reference). Perhaps the best known of his works is Zigeunerweisen (1878), a work for violin and orchestra. Another piece, the Carmen Fantasy (1883), also for violin and orchestra, makes use of themes from Georges Bizet's opera Carmen. Probably his most performed encores are his two books of Spanish dances, brief pieces designed to please the listener's ear and show off the performer's talent. He also made arrangements of a number of other composers' work for violin, and composed sets of variations on "potpourris" drawn from operas familiar to his audiences, such as his Fantasia on La forza del destino (his Opus 1), his "Souvenirs of Faust", or his variations on themes from Die Zauberflöte. In 1904 he made a small number of recordings. In all his travels Sarasate returned to Pamplona each year for the San Fermín festival.[1]
The familiar figure of Sarasate caricatured as a "Man of the Day" for Vanity Fair, 1889
Sarasate died in Biarritz, France on September 20, 1908 from chronic bronchitis. He bequeathed his violin, made by Antonio Stradivari in 1724, to the Musée de la Musique. The violin now bears his name as the Sarasate Stradivarius in his memory. His second Stradivari violin, the Boissier of 1713, is now owned by Real Conservatorio Superior de Música, Madrid. Among his violin pupils was Alfred De Sève. The Pablo Sarasate International Violin Competition is held in Pamplona.
A number of works for violin were dedicated to Sarasate, including Henryk Wieniawski's Violin Concerto No. 2, Édouard Lalo's Symphonie Espagnole, Camille Saint-Saëns' Violin Concerto No. 3 and his Introduction and Rondo capriccioso, Max Bruch's Scottish Fantasy, and Alexander Mackenzie's Pibroch Suite. Also inspired by Sarasate is William H. Potstock's Souvenir de Sarasate.
Appearance in other art forms
- Noted painter James Whistler's Arrangement in Black: Pablo de Sarasate (1884) is a portrait of Pablo Sarasate.
- In Arthur Conan Doyle's short story The Red-Headed League (1891), Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John H. Watson attend a concert by Sarasate.
- In Edith Wharton's 1920 novel The Age of Innocence set in 1870s New York, the main protagonist is invited to a private recital to be given by Sarasate.
- Sarasate is a major figure in "Murder to Music", a Sherlock Holmes pastiche by Anthony Burgess.[2]
List of compositions[3]
Opus Composition Instrumentation — Fantasia Capriccio Violin and piano — Souvenir de Faust Violin and piano 1 Fantasy on La forza del destino Violin and piano 2 Homenaje a Rossini Violin and piano 3 La dame blanche de Boieldieu Violin and orchestra 4 Réverie Violin and piano 5 Fantasy on Roméo et Juliette Violin and piano 6 Caprice on Mireille Violin and piano 7 Confidences Violin and piano 8 Souvenir de Domont Violin and piano 9 Les Adieux Violin and piano 10 Sérénade Andalouse Violin and piano 11 Le sommeil Violin and piano 12 Moscovienne Violin and piano 13 New Fantasy on Faust Violin and orchestra 14 Fantasy on Der Freischütz Violin and orchestra 15 Mosaíque de Zampa Violin and piano 16 Gavota on Mignon Violin and piano 17 Priére at Berceuse Violin and piano 18 Airs espagnols Violin and piano 19 Fantasy on Martha Violin and piano 20 Zigeunerweisen Violin and orchestra 21 Malagueña y Habanera Violin and piano 22 Romanza andaluza y jota navarra Violin and piano 23 Playera y zapateado Violin and piano 24 Capricho vasco Violin and piano 25 Fantasy on Carmen Violin and orchestra 26 Vito y habanera Violin and piano 27 Jota aragonesa Violin and piano 28 Serenata andaluza Violin and piano 29 El canto del ruiseñor Violin and orchestra 30 Bolero Violin and piano 31 Balada Violin and piano 32 Muñeira Violin and orchestra 33 Navarra Violin and orchestra 34 Airs Écossais Violin and orchestra 35 Fantasía en sapo Reina Violin and piano 36 Jota de San Fermín Violin and piano 37 Zortzico Adiós montañas mías Violin and piano 38 Viva Sevilla! Violin and orchestra 39 Zortzico de Iparraguirre Violin and piano 40 Introduction et fandango varié Violin and piano 41 Introduction et caprice-jota Violin and orchestra 42 Zortzico Miramar Violin and orchestra 43 Introduction et tarantelle Violin and orchestra 44 La chase Violin and orchestra 45 Nocturno — Serenata Violin and orchestra 46 Gondoliéra Veneziana Violin and piano 47 Melodía rumana Violin and piano 48 L'Esprit Follet Violin and orchestra 49 Canciones rusas Violin and orchestra 50 Jota de Pamplona Violin and orchestra 51 Fantasy on Don Giovanni Violin and piano 52 Jota de Pablo Violin and orchestra 53 La Rève Violin and piano 54 Fantasy on The Magic Flute Violin and orchestra Notes
- ^ Zdenko Silvela,A New History Of Violin Playing 2001:199.
- ^ Originally published in Burgess' The Devil's Mode (Random House, 1989). Reprinted 2009 in The Improbable Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, ed. John Joseph Adams (San Francisco: Night Shade Books [ISBN 978-1-61523-551-3, ISBN 978-1597801607])
- ^ Catalogue of Works
54. Zapateado Violin and Piano
External links
- Free scores by Pablo de Sarasate at the International Music Score Library Project
- Ziegeunerweisen, with the solo violin played by de Sarasate himself, and others (i.a. Jascha Heifetz and Itzhak Perlman)
- Pablo de Sarasate at Allmusic
- Eduardo H. Asiain plays music by Pablo Sarasate
- pablosarasate.com
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.Categories:- 1844 births
- 1908 deaths
- People from Pamplona
- Spanish composers
- Composers for violin
- Romantic composers
- Spanish classical violinists
- Deaths from bronchitis
- Alumni of the Conservatoire de Paris
- Honorary Members of the Royal Philharmonic Society
- Basque classical musicians
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