World Premiere: February 7, 1875
Last HSO performance: HSO Premiere
Instrumentation: 2 flutes, piccolo, 2 oboe,
2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets,
3 trombones, timpani, snare drum, triangle, harp, strings
Duration: 33’

Édouard Lalo’s early musical training was at the conservatory in Lille, where he was born in 1823; he later transferred to the Paris Conservatoire to study composition and violin. He started composing in the 1840s, but, discouraged by the lack of performances and publications of his music, he abandoned his creative work for almost a decade to play viola (and later second violin) in the Armingaud-Jacquard Quartet. His muse was rekindled in 1865 upon his marriage to Bernier de Maligny, a gifted contralto who performed many of his songs in recital and who also inspired his first opera, Fiesque. The Divertissement for orchestra (1872), based on ballet music from Fiesque, was his first important success as a composer. Encouraged by the formation of the Société Nationale de Musique in 1871 and the support of such conductors as Pasdeloup, Lamoureux and Colonne, Lalo produced a succession of instrumental works that brought him to the forefront of French music, including the Violin Concerto (1874) and Symphonie Espagnole (1875), both premiered by the celebrated Spanish virtuoso Pablo de Sarasate. His eminent position in French music was confirmed when he was awarded the Legion of Honor in 1888. 

The Symphonie Espagnole, despite its name, is a true concerto in which the soloist is called upon to display significant feats of violinistic prowess. The five movements individually follow symphonic structures, which led Lalo to write about the title, “It conveyed my thought — a violin soaring above the rigid form of an old symphony.” The first movement is cast in sonata form, with a main theme employing bold upward leaps and a legato second theme in a contrasting major tonality. The nimble, dance-like Scherzando, in three-part form (A–B–A), calls for both lyricism and flexibility from the soloist. The next movement is characterized by the extensive use of the Spanish rhythmic device of alternating groups of two and three notes. In the fourth movement, a three-part structure (A–B–A), a somber introduction leads to the melancholy main theme for the soloist. The finale, begun by the sound of distant peeling bells, is a bubbling rondo in the style of the saltarello.