jmc's classics
Today is the anniversary of the death of Sibelius in 1957 at al most 92. it is also the anniversary of the death of Spanish composer and violinist Pablo De Sarasate (1844-1908) He was born the same year as Nicolai Rimsky-Korsikoff and Charles Marie Widor.
He was a violin virtuoso he is remembered as a composer of violin repretoire. His most famous work is Zigeunerweisn for violin and orchestra. It is based on Gypsey melodies. He wrote about 50 other compositions. There are a few recordings of him playing the violin. Unfortunately, they are very primitive compared to today's standards. I have heard a recording of him playing Zigeunereisn on YouTube with piano instead of orchestra. It does sound good for that time period. The copy of Zigeunerweisen that I have is of Leila Josefowicz with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields conducted by Neville Mariner on the Philips Label. It features several other violin pieces played by Josefowicz. I would recommend this recording. This piece is about eight minutes. it starts out slow and ends very fast. Many composers of that day dedicated works for Sarasate such as Camille Saint Saens' Third Violin Concerto, Max Bruch's Scottish Fantasy, Henryk Wieniawski's Second Violin Concerto and Edouard Lalo's Symphony Espagnole. He had his first concert at age eight. He eventually caught the attention of Queen Isabella ll of Spain. He toured Europe plus north and South America. George Bernard Shaw said of him that "there are many composers that compose music for the violin but there are few composers that compose violin music and that he (Sarasate) is one of them". Leila Josefowicz is a Canadian born violinist of Polish heriatge. She has made other recordings with Mariner and the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields. one of them is a recording of the Vioilin concertos of Tchaikovsky and Sibelius which I also have a copy of. Sibelius was also a violinist. He wrote works for violin as well as for most of the other genres of classical music.
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