Pablo de Sarasate Free Sheet Music, Program Notes, Recordings and Biography

The Voice of the Violin

The great critic and playwright George Bernard Shaw, never one for faint praise, once perfectly captured the magic of Pablo de Sarasate. After hearing him play, Shaw wrote that while there were many violinists who could play their instrument, Sarasate stood alone. Others, he explained, produced a tone that was "more or less musical," but Sarasate's was "of divine purity." He concluded that Sarasate didn't just play the violin; he made "the violin sing and laugh." This simple observation gets to the heart of what made Sarasate a legend. In an age of thunderous virtuosos, he was celebrated not for raw power, but for an effortless, elegant, and impossibly beautiful tone—a voice of such sweetness and purity that it captivated audiences worldwide and inspired a generation of composers to write for him.

The Prodigy of Pamplona

Pablo Martín Melitón de Sarasate y Navascués was born in Pamplona, Spain, the son of a local military bandmaster. He was an astonishing child prodigy, picking up the violin at age five and giving his first public concert at eight. His talent was so undeniable that he soon attracted the attention of the Spanish monarchy. Queen Isabella II herself became his patron, granting him the funds to travel to Paris to study at the world's most prestigious music school, the Paris Conservatoire. During his journey to Paris, his mother died of a heart attack, a tragic start to his new life.

The Paris Conservatoire and the Path to Virtuosity

Once in Paris, Sarasate became a student of the esteemed violinist Jean-Delphin Alard. He absorbed everything the Conservatoire had to offer with astonishing speed. At the age of just seventeen, he entered the school's competitions and walked away with the coveted Premier Prix (First Prize) in both violin and solfège. His formal training complete, he embarked on his career as a touring virtuoso.

His debut was a sensation. He quickly established himself as one of the leading violinists of his generation, touring extensively throughout Europe, North America, and South America. He became one of the first truly global musical superstars, his name a household word from Moscow to Mexico City. He owned two magnificent Stradivarius violins—the Betts Stradivarius of 1704 and the Sarasate Stradivarius of 1724—which became as famous as he was.

A Tone of Sweetness and Fire

What set Sarasate apart was the quality of his sound. He was not a "heroic" player in the mold of some of his contemporaries. His physical frame was slight, and his playing style was relaxed and seemingly effortless. He produced a tone that was praised above all for its purity, sweetness, and lyrical quality. He never forced the sound, and his intonation was famously flawless. This is not to say he lacked fire; when the music demanded it, he could play with dazzling speed and rhythmic vitality. But it was always tempered by an underlying elegance and grace. His technique was so complete that he made the most difficult passages sound easy, a quality that left other musicians in awe.

The Composer-Virtuoso: Spanish Dances and Fantasies

Sarasate was a composer, but one with a specific goal: to write music for himself to play. He had no ambition to write symphonies or string quartets in the German tradition. Instead, he created a series of brilliant showpieces designed to highlight his own unique talents and Spanish heritage. These works are now central to the virtuosic violin repertoire.

His most famous original composition is Zigeunerweisen (Gypsy Airs), Op. 20. It's a perfect encapsulation of his style, beginning with a slow, smoldering, and deeply melancholic lament before erupting into a final section of breathtaking speed and pyrotechnics. His Carmen Fantasy, Op. 25, is a brilliant reworking of the most popular melodies from Georges Bizet's opera, a dazzling tour de force of technical tricks and operatic flair. He also wrote a series of Spanish Dances, which brought the vibrant rhythms of his homeland—like the jota and the zortzico—to the international concert stage.

The Muse of a Generation

Beyond his own compositions, Sarasate's greatest contribution to music was as an inspiration to others. Many of the most famous works in the violin repertoire were written specifically for him, with his unique sound in the composer's ear.

• Édouard Lalo composed his enormously popular Symphonie espagnole for Sarasate.

• Camille Saint-Saëns, a close friend, wrote both his Violin Concerto No. 3 and the beloved Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso for him.

• Max Bruch, after hearing Sarasate perform, was inspired to write his Violin Concerto No. 2 and the magnificent Scottish Fantasy.

Even when a work wasn't dedicated to him, his influence was felt. It was Sarasate who gave the premiere performance of Henryk Wieniawski's virtuosic Violin Concerto No. 2. To have a work performed by Sarasate was a guarantee of its success.

He spent his final years in the French coastal town of Biarritz, near his Spanish homeland, and died of chronic bronchitis in 1908. He bequeathed his two famous violins to museums, where they are still preserved. Sarasate's legacy is that of a performer who defined the sound of the violin for his era and as a composer who perfectly understood how to make his instrument, in the words of Shaw, "sing and laugh."

Section 4: References and Further Reading

References and Further Reading

• Massana, Marta. Pablo Sarasate: The Voiceless Violin. Translated by Annatt Flescher. Eusko Ikaskuntza, 2011.

• Schwarz, Boris and Mark Katz. "Sarasate, Pablo de." In The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd ed., edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell. Macmillan Publishers, 2001.

• Flesch, Carl. The Memoirs of Carl Flesch. Translated by Hans Keller. Da Capo Press, 1979.