Pablo de Sarasate
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Pablo Martín Melitón de Sarasate y Navascuéz (March 10, 1844–September 20, 1908) was a Spanish violinist and composer. He was one of the most famous violin virtuosi of his time.
Sarasate was born in Pamplona, the son of a military bandmaster. He gave his public debut at the age of eight, and studied first in Madrid and later at the Paris Conservatoire. He gave concert tours from 1859, playing throughout Europe and both North and South America. He died in Biarritz.
Sarasate had very small hands, and thus physically could not cope with pieces by composers such as Paganini or Ernst. It is a wonder he got around the Brahms Concerto, seeing as there are sections in tenths, a mighty reach for a small hand.
A number of pieces were written for Saraste, including Henryk Wieniawski's Violin Concerto No. 2, Édouard Lalo's Symphonie espagnole, Camille Saint-Saëns' Violin Concerto No. 3 and Introduction and rondo capriccioso and Max Bruch's Scottish Fantasy.
Sarasate's own compositions are mainly flashy show-pieces designed to demonstrate his exemplary technique. 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, short little 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. In 1908 he made a small number of recordings.
James Whistler's Arrangement in Black: Pablo de Sarasate (1884) is a portrait of Sarasate.de:Pablo de Sarasate es:Pablo Sarasate fr:Pablo de Sarasate ja:パブロ・デ・サラサーテ