A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Sarasate, Martin
SARASATE, Martin Meliton, [App. p.780 "his full name is Pablo Martin Meliton Sarasate y Navascues"] born at Pampeluna, March 10, 1844, came to France as a child, and entered the Paris Conservatoire, Jan. 1, 1856. The following year he became the favourite pupil of Alard, and gained the first prizes for solfeggio and violin. He then entered Reber's harmony class, and secured a premier accessit in 1859, but shortly after relinquished the study of composition for the more tempting career of a concert player. His beautiful tone, retentive memory, immense execution, and certainty of finger, added to the singularity of his manners and appearance, ensured his success in Paris, the French provinces, and the Peninsula. The Spaniards naturally honoured an artist whom they looked upon as their own countryman, but Sarasate aspired to make his name known wherever music was appreciated, as well as in the two countries especially his own by birth and adoption. No violinist has travelled more than he; besides making his way through Europe, from the remotest corner of Portugal to Norway, and from London to Moscow, he has visited America, North and South. In all his wanderings he has contrived to carry on his cultivation, and develope his great natural gifts. To London his first visit was in 1874, when he played at the Philharmonic Concert, May 18, and at the Musical Union, June 9, etc. He returned in 1877 (Crystal Palace, Oct. 13), and 78 (Philharmonic, Mar. 28), since when he has not crossed the channel. [App. p.780 "In 1885 and 1886 he gave sets of orchestral concerts, conducted by Mr. Cusins, in St. James's Hall, and at the Birmingham Festival of 1885 played a violin concerto written for him by Mr. Mackenzie."]
Sarasate's distinguishing characteristics are not so much fire, force, and passion, though of these he has an ample store, as purity of style, charm, flexibility, and extraordinary facility. He sings on his instrument with taste and expression, and without that exaggeration or affectation of sentiment which disfigures the playing of many violinists. He is not, however, quite free from a tendency to trick, such as tremolo, which is very regrettable in an artist of genius and sensibility, and from over-rapidity in quick movements. His repertoire is varied, comprising the concertos of the classical masters—Viotti, Beethoven, Spohr, and Mendelssohn—and the works of the modern French and Belgian schools. Among the latter his favourites are Max Bruch's concertos, those of Saint-Saëns and Lalo, and the Symphonie Espagnole of the last-named composer. Sarasate has composed for his instrument romances, fantaisies, and especially transcriptions of Spanish airs and dances (Simrock, Bonn), all calculated to display his skill as a virtuoso.