Pablo de Sarasate

For more information on Pablo Martín Melitón de Sarasate y Navascuéz, visit Britannica.com.

(b Pamplona, 10 March 1844; d Biarritz, 20 Sept 1908). Spanish violinist and composer. He studied at the Paris Conservatoire. From 1859 concert tours made him famous throughout Europe and in North and South America, his playing being distinguished by beautiful tone and a superb, apparently effortless technique. Among the many composers who dedicated works to him were Bruch, Saint-Saëns, Joachim and Dvořák. Best known of his own 54 opus numbers, chiefly virtuoso violin works, are the Zigeunerweisen op.20 (1878) and the four books of Spanische Tänze (opp. 21, 22, 23, 26).

Pablo de Sarasate (1844 - 1908) was one of the most famous violinists of the late nineteenth century. He gave the premieres of several major works for violin and orchestra, and he composed violin music of his own that is still enthusiastically played and recorded.

Sarasate made his home base in Paris, France, and the exotic Spanish tinge he brought to French concert life helped lay the groundwork for a lasting fascination with Mediterranean sounds among composers in France and other more northerly European countries. Sarasate was also famous far beyond France. When fictional detective Sherlock Holmes and his sidekick Dr. Watson had to spend part of a day waiting for one of their plans to come to fruition (in the story "The Red-Headed League"), they decided to go to a concert by Sarasate. The choice of Sarasate's name was logical for author Arthur Conan Doyle, for Sarasate was a frequent presence on London concert bills. A prolific performer, Sarasate toured North and South America twice, and he was acclaimed in Germany in spite of the traditional German-French animosity, which extended into artistic as well as political and military affairs.

Outstripped Father's Skills

Born Martín Melitón Sarasate y Navascuéz (or Navascues) on March 10, 1844, he adopted his simpler stage name when he moved to Paris and began his career. Sarasate was a native of Pamplona in Spain's culturally distinctive and musically rich Basque region. His father, Don Miguel Sarasate, was a military bandmaster and part-time violinist who, according to one story, got a major shock when his five-year-old son picked up a violin and effortlessly played the passage that he, the father, had been struggling with. The truth of the story is hard to determine, but two facts are part of the historical record: Sarasate and his father did not get along well, and Sarasate became an exceptional child prodigy on the violin. He gave his first concert at age eight and won the admiration of the Countess Espoz y Mina, who removed any financial barrier to his studies with an annual allowance of 2,000 Spanish reales.

Spain at the time had vibrant regional traditions but was something of a backwater in terms of the main developments in European classical music. Sarasate went to Madrid and became a favorite of Spain's royal family, but even the best teachers at the Spanish court soon found that their pupil had exceeded anything they could teach him. They urged Sarasate's family to send him to Paris for further study. The 11-year-old Sarasate set off for Paris on a train, accompanied by his mother. The trip was disastrous: at the Spanish-French border, Sarasate's mother died of a heart attack, and the doctor who was called determined that Sarasate himself was suffering from cholera. Nursed back to health by a Spanish nobleman who saw what was happening, he finally arrived in Paris and was taken in by a bureaucrat at the famed Paris Conservatory.

Under the tutelage of a Mr. Alard, violin professor at the Conservatory, Sarasate continued to make rapid progress. Spaniards applauded his renown, and a grant from the Spanish Queen Isabella aided his studies. In 1857 he won the Conservatory's first prize in violin - an honor that placed him already in the top ranks of Spanish violinists. His teachers warned him not to plunge into the whirl of concert life too soon, and he won another prize, in harmony, in 1859.

By that time, Sarasate was ready to launch what would become a lifetime of concert touring. He moved into a Paris apartment, and though he returned to Spain (especially to Pamplona) for visits, he identified himself more and more as French. His home base was Paris, and when he was able to afford a more luxurious home in 1884, he hired one of the most famous artists of the day, the American-born James McNeill Whistler, to decorate it. Whistler painted a portrait of Sarasate in the process; one of the painter's best-known works, it was given the typically Whistleresque title of Arrangement in Black but remains the most familiar image of the violinist.

Toured Americas

At the beginning of his career, Sarasate played mostly the established gems of the violin repertory. His interpretations of the concertos for violin and orchestra of Beethoven and Mendelssohn were well known, and observers generally described his tone as sweet and pure, free of any noise or friction caused by the contact of the bow with the strings. His playing was not sentimental, and he employed comparatively little vibrato. Beyond these individual characteristics of style was Sarasate's demeanor: his real trademark as a performer was that he made even very difficult music look effortless. Sarasate's fame spread with his first tour of the Western hemisphere, which began in 1867, took him from New York to Argentina, and lasted until 1871. He made a return trip in 1889 and 1890, and he also traveled to South Africa and to the Far East.

After returning to France from his first American trip, Sarasate began to attain a new level of renown with his original compositions, mostly for violin and piano. As his fame grew, however, it was often arranged for violin and orchestra when circumstances demanded. Sarasate had written music prior to the American trip, but it was the music written from the mid-1870s until the end of his life that became ensconced in repertory of violinists everywhere. Much of it had a Spanish flavor, and in an age when Spanish music was considered exotic - Georges Bizet's opera Carmen was at first rejected by the Parisian public - Sarasate's pieces helped create a vogue for Spanish folk influences that would last for decades.

By the mid-1870s, the only gap in Sarasate's international fame was Germany, where he had never performed. France and Germany had fought a war in the early 1870s, and the musical world, too, was polarized into French and German camps, with partisans of heavier, more intricate German operatic and symphonic works facing off against lovers of the clarity and balance prized by the French. Sarasate's first tour of Germany in 1876, to the temperamental violinist's consternation, received mixed reviews at first; Sarasate was unfavorably compared to Germany's top violinist, Joseph Joachim, and Sarasate was on the point of boarding a train and returning to Paris. He was talked out of leaving by a promoter, however, and when he appeared at the Gewandhaus concert hall in Leipzig, one of the temples of German concert life, a thunderous ovation brought the house down. Any rivalry between Sarasate and Joachim was purely in the minds of their backers; the two artists admired and dedicated compositions to each other.

Many of Sarasate's most famous compositions were originally published in Germany, and a few bore German titles as a result. His Zigeunerweisen (Gypsy Tunes) of 1878 was his first major work to draw successfully on his Spanish musical heritage, and he followed that up with four sets of Spanish Dances issued in Berlin between 1878 and 1882. Sarasate also specialized in medley-like arrangements of tunes from famous operas; the best known among them was his Concert Fantasies on Carmen of 1883. All of Sarasate's compositions are technically difficult, but that one poses special challenges for the violinist.

Charmed Women but Never Married

Sarasate never married; early in life he was cast off by a young woman who agreed to take part in an arranged marriage, and he never got over the rejection. The charismatic violinist, who was a sharp dresser and always paid close attention to his public image, charmed women by presenting them with Spanish fans but then spurned their romantic advances. Large amounts of mail from women piled up in Sarasate's Paris apartment, and one married woman kept a diary consisting of love letters to Sarasate that stretched over a period of 18 years. In his infrequent periods of relaxation from the rigors of touring, Sarasate liked to spend time at a home he owned in the French seaside resort of Biarritz.

In the 1880s and 1890s, Sarasate was one of the most famous musicians in the world. Top composers competed to have him give the first performances of their works for violin. The list of works premiered by Sarasate includes the Violin Concertos Nos. 1 and 3 by Camille Saint-Saëns and the Violin Concerto No. 2 and Scottish Fantasy by Max Bruch. Sometimes Sarasate took an active hand in works written for him, advising the composers about the capabilities and quirks of the violin. Saint-Saëns, quoted by Grange Woolley in a Music and Letters article, felt that in the case of one of his concertos "he [Sarasate] gave me valuable advice to which is due, certainly to some extent, the considerable success of this piece."

Unlike many violin stars, Sarasate enjoyed playing what is known as chamber music - classical music for small ensembles. He continued to perform and compose into the twentieth century, and before his death he became one of the first violinists to record; he made nine cylinder recordings in 1904. Those recordings, which have been reissued on compact discs, confirm the observations made by Sarasate's contemporaries about the lightness and seeming effortlessness of his playing, and he had plainly lost none of his power even as he entered his seventh decade. In the words of an American Record Guide reviewer, "Sarasate had a style that was emotionally low-key, glib even, and that presented its extreme virtuosity to the listener as though it were nothing remarkable - no drama, no histrionics, but the fleetest fingers and bow arm in the history of recorded sound.

Sarasate was slowed only by chronic breathing problems, to which he succumbed at his home in Biarritz on September 20, 1908. For much of the twentieth century, he was little more than a name in music history books. As composers tried to outdo each other in devising modern innovations, the tuneful and showy music of Sarasate's era fell out of fashion. Violinists studied the Spanish Dances but performed them as encores, if at all.

Young violinists, however, began to rediscover Sarasate's music in the 1990s as classical musicians in general sought to rediscover the direct appeal held by the great performers of the past. American violinists Joshua Bell and Leila Josefowicz, both performers with an interest in crossing the boundary between classical and pop music, recorded Sarasate's Zigeunerweisen, and Rachel Barton Pine recorded an entire Homage to Sarasate CD as well as recording Sarasate's works on other releases. Once again, Sarasate's name has become known beyond the communities of violin students and Sherlock Holmes enthusiasts.

Books

Sadie, Stanley, ed., The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd ed., Macmillan, 2001.

Slonimsky, Nicolas, editor emeritus, Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Schirmer, 2001.

Periodicals

American Record Guide, November-December 1994; March-April 2005.

Music & Letters, July 1955.

Online

"Pablo Sarasate, Biography, http://www.pablosarasate.com (January 29, 2006).

Pablo Sarasate
Pablo de Sarasate
Background information
Birth name	Pablo Martín Melitón de Sarasate y Navascués
Born	March 10, 1844(1844-03-10) Pamplona, Spain
Died	September 20, 1908 (aged 64) Biarritz, France
Genres	Classical
Occupations	Composer, conductor, violinist
Years active	1852–1904
Notable instruments
Violin Boissier Stradivarius 1713 Sarasate Stradivarius 1724

Pablo Martín Melitón de Sarasate y Navascués (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈpablo saɾaˈsate], March 10, 1844 – September 20, 1908) was a Spanish violinist and composer of the Romantic period.

Contents 1 Career 2 Appearance in other art forms 3 List of Compositions[2] 4 Notes 5 External links

Career

Pablo Sarasate was born in Pamplona, Spain, 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 flashy 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]

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. The Pablo Sarasate International Violin Competition is held in Madrid.

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 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.

List of Compositions^[2]

	Romanza Andaluza Performed by Carrie Rehkopf Navarra Op. 33 Performed by Roxana Pavel Goldstein and Elias Goldstein (violins) with the Depaul Symphony (Chicago) conducted by Cliff Colnot
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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

1. ^ Zdenko Silvela,A New History Of Violin Playing 2001:199.
2. ^ Catalogue of Works

External links

• Free scores by Pablo de Sarasate in 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 the Encyclopædia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.

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