Pablo de Sarasate
Pablo de Sarasate was born Pablo Martin Melton Sarasate y Navascuez, the son of a local military bandmaster in the Spanish town of Pamplona, where each July brings the Fiesta de San Fermín and its notorious "running of the bulls." Sarasate demonstrated musical talent very early and began violin lessons at age five. Making his concert debut at eight, Sarasate went to Madrid to study with violinist Manuel Rodriguez Sáez. The boy proved a sensation at the court of Queen Isabel II.
When Sarasate was 12, he and his mother set out for Paris on a journey meant to advance his skills on the violin. But the mother expired of a heart attack on the train en route, and Sarasate himself was diagnosed with cholera. Upon recovery, Sarasate was sent on to Paris; finally he auditioned successfully for Jean-Delphin Alard, violin instructor at the Paris Conservatoire. After five years of study with Alard, Sarasate won the Conservatoire's annual first prize. Thus was launched one of the most exciting and enduring violin careers of the nineteenth century.
Beginning in 1859, Sarasate embarked on a world tour that ran, more or less continuously, for three decades. During a tour of the United States, American artist James McNeill Whistler painted a famous portrait of Sarasate entitled Arrangements in Black. His first appearance in Britain was received with indifference, but a return visit in 1874 yielded better results, and composer Alexander Mackenzie composed a violin concerto for Sarasate that was heard at the Birmingham Festival of 1885. He even became a star in Germany and Austria, where his easy virtuosity might have seemed out of step with German music's more cerebral mainstream. Several of the works written for Sarasate have become staples of violin repertoire, including Lalo's Symphonie espagnole and F minor Concerto, Saint-Saëns' Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso and his First and Third Violin Concerti, Bruch's Second Violin Concerto and the Scottish Fantasy.
Of Sarasate's 57 known compositions, many of which served him well in his own concerts, the majority have been forgotten; they were fashioned in a style that reached little beyond its own time. The Zigeunerweisen, Op. 20, remain an indispensable item in the violinist's repertory, however, and his splashy Spanish Dances, Opp. 21-23 and 26, still furnish enjoyable diversions in the course of many a violin recital. Sarasate's Carmen Fantasy, Op. 25 is likewise a violin standard, and suggests Sarasate's role in transmitting Spanish idioms to greater Europe. Sarasate was not a mainstream Romantic virtuoso in the mold of Joseph Joachim and did not play the Brahms concerto; he played with a lighter touch, and preferred lighter fare.
Sarasate made nine phonograph records in 1904, when he was 60. It is easy to hear from them what made Sarasate such an exciting performer; four decades as a touring concert artist had dimmed his powers very little. Though Sarasate had basically retired to a villa in the seacoast town of Biarritz, France, by 1890, he continued keep his chops up, and performed at the Fiesta de San Fermín every year in his hometown of Pamplona. At his death from bronchitis in 1908 at age 64, Sarasate was in possession of two Stradivarius violins; one was bequeathed to the Paris Conservatoire, and the other the Conservatory of Madrid. The remainder of Sarasate's possessions was left to Pamplona, which has erected a museum in his memory.
© TiVo
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Discography
14 album(s) • Sorted by Bestseller
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Mozart & Beethoven: Works for Violin
Ji Won Song, Jose Gallardo, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, Fritz Kreisler, Pablo de Sarasate
Classical - Released by Rondeau Production on Apr 27, 2018
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Obras Completas (Remastered)
Classical - Released by Master Tape Records on Oct 11, 2019
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Legendary Violinist David Nadien, Vol. 2
Classical - Released by Cembal d'amour CD 117 on Jan 1, 2002
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Paganini Violin Spectaculars
Classical - Released by Cobra Entertainment LLC on Apr 15, 2016
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Sarasate by Kaplan
Classical - Released by Arabesque Recordings on Jan 1, 1990
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Cello In Classic
Classical - Released by Bomba-Piter on Jan 1, 2007
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
30 Must-Have Spanish Classics
Classical - Released by Cobra Entertainment LLC on May 21, 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Cello in Classic
Classical - Released by Bomba-Piter on Nov 13, 2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Romantic Violin of Denes Zsigmondy
Vienna Kolonaden Orchestra, Denes Zsigmondy
Classical - Released by Tuxedo Music on May 23, 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Great Violinists, Vol. 21 (1904-1915) (Johann Sebastian Bach - Pablo de Sarasate - Fryderyk Chopin)
Classical - Released by Symposium on Sep 13, 2004
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Encore!
Chamber Orchestra Kremlin, Misha Rachlevsky
Classical - Released by Claves Records on Jan 1, 1995
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Sarasate: Nocturne-Serenade for Violin and Piano, Op. 45 (Digitally Remastered)
Oliver Colbentson, Erich Appel
Classical - Released by EMG Classical on Dec 9, 2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
NKB SP Selection No. 1, Self-composed Performance
Maurice Ravel, Igor Stravinsky, Fritz Kreisler, Ignacy Jan Paderewski, Pablo de Sarasate
Classical - Released by NKB Record on Aug 25, 2023
24-Bit 192.0 kHz - Stereo -
Preludio
Pablo de Sarasate, Manuel Guillén
World - Released by Boileau Music on Sep 28, 2021
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo