Pablo Martín Melitón de Sarasate y Navascués (his name is pronounced "pa-BLO sa-ra-za-te" in Spanish), born on March 10, 1844, and died on September 20, 1908, was a Spanish expert violinist, composer, and conductor during the Romantic period. He is most commonly known as Pablo de Sarasate. His most famous works are Zigeunerweisen (Gypsy Airs), the Spanish Dances, and the Carmen Fantasy.

Biography

Pablo de Sarasate was born in Pamplona, Navarre, in 1844. His father, Don Miguel Sarasate, was a local artillery bandmaster. After watching his father struggle with a difficult violin passage, Sarasate picked up the violin and played it perfectly. He began studying the violin with his father at age five and later took lessons from a local teacher. His musical talent was clear early in life, and he performed in his first public concert in A Coruña at age eight.

His performance was well-received and caught the attention of a wealthy patron who funded Sarasate’s studies with Manuel Rodríguez Saez in Madrid. There, he gained the favor of Queen Isabella II. As his abilities grew, his parents sent him to study with Jean-Delphin Alard at the Paris Conservatoire at age twelve. During the train ride to Paris, his mother, who was traveling with him, died of a heart attack near the Spanish-French border. Doctors found that Sarasate was also suffering from cholera. The Spanish Consul in Bayonne took Sarasate into his home, cared for him, and helped pay for his trip to Paris.

In Paris, Sarasate auditioned successfully for Alard, who arranged for him to live with his colleague, Théodore de Lassabathie, who worked at the Conservatoire. At seventeen, Sarasate entered a competition for the Premier Prix and won the highest honor at the Conservatoire. No other Spanish violinist achieved this until Manuel Quiroga did so in 1911.

Sarasate, who had performed publicly since childhood, made his Paris debut as a concert violinist in 1860 and played in London the following year. Throughout his career, he toured many parts of the world, performing in Europe, North America, and South America. His artistic excellence was due to the purity of his tone, which avoided sentimental or overly emotional styles, and his impressive skill, which made him a virtuoso. In his early career, Sarasate performed mainly opera fantasies, including the Carmen Fantasy, and other pieces he composed. The Spanish influence in his music inspired other composers, such as Édouard Lalo’s Symphonie espagnole (dedicated to Sarasate), Georges Bizet’s Carmen, and Camille Saint-Saëns’s Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso (written for Sarasate and dedicated to him).

George Bernard Shaw, a playwright and music critic, once said that while many composers wrote for the violin, few truly composed violin music. He praised Sarasate’s skills as a performer and composer, saying that he "left criticism gasping miles behind him." Sarasate’s compositions were mostly showpieces to display his technique. His most famous work is Zigeunerweisen (1878), for violin and orchestra. Another well-known piece is the Carmen Fantasy (1883), which uses themes from Bizet’s opera Carmen. His most performed encores include his four books of Spanish Dances (Opp. 21, 22, 23, 26), short pieces meant to please audiences and showcase a performer’s skill. He also arranged works by other composers for violin and created variations based on familiar operas, such as his Fantasia on La forza del destino (Opus 1), Souvenirs de Faust, and variations from Die Zauberflöte.

In Brussels, Sarasate met Berthe Marx, who traveled with him as a soloist and accompanist during his tours across Europe, Mexico, and the United States. Together, they performed in about 600 concerts. Marx also arranged Sarasate’s Spanish Dances for the piano. In 1904, Sarasate made a few recordings. Despite his travels, he returned to Pamplona each year for the San Fermín festival.

Sarasate died in Biarritz, France, on September 20, 1908, from chronic bronchitis. He left his violin, made by Antonio Stradivari in 1724, to the Musée de la Musique. The violin now bears his name, the Sarasate Stradivarius. His second Stradivari violin, the Boissier of 1713, is now owned by the Real Conservatorio Superior de Música in Madrid. Among his students were Alfred de Sève and M. J. Niedzielski. The Pablo Sarasate International Violin Competition is held in Pamplona.

Many works for violin were dedicated to Sarasate, including Henryk Wieniawski’s Violin Concerto No. 2, Édouard Lalo’s Symphonie espagnole, Camille Saint-Saëns’s Violin Concerto No. 3 and Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso, Max Bruch’s Scottish Fantasy, and Alexander Mackenzie’s Pibroch Suite. William H. Potstock’s Souvenir de Sarasate was also inspired by him.

Appearance in other art forms

• James Whistler's painting Arrangement in Black: Pablo de Sarasate (1884) shows Pablo Sarasate.
• In Arthur Conan Doyle's short story The Red-Headed League (1891), Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John H. Watson go to a concert where Sarasate plays. In the 1984 Granada Television version of the story, violinist Bruce Dukov acts as Sarasate.
• Sarasate is an important character in Murder to Music, a Sherlock Holmes-style story written by Anthony Burgess. Holmes is also said to attend a Sarasate concert in The Treasure Train, a book by Frankie Thomas.
• In Edith Wharton's 1920 novel The Age of Innocence, which is set in 1870s New York, the main character is invited to a private concert where Sarasate performs.
• Zigeunerweisen is the title of a 1980 movie directed by Seijun Suzuki, which is part of the Taisho Trilogy. A recording of the musical piece Zigeunerweisen by Sarasate is used as a theme in the movie.
• Sarasate appears in A Study in Sable, a story from Mercedes Lackey's Elemental Masters series. In the story, based on the folk tale "The Twa Sisters," Sarasate is described as an Elemental Master of Spirit, meaning he can summon, speak with, and partly control ghosts through his music. He uses a bow made of bone and hair from a murdered woman to help bring justice to her sister.

List of compositions

Sarasate wrote over fifty musical pieces, all of which feature the violin. He gave opus numbers to 54 of these works.