PLAYERA, OP. 23 NO. 1 (Composed 1879; 5 minutes)
CONCERT FANTASY ON THEMES FROM ‘CARMEN’, OP. 25 (Composed c.1883; 13 minutes)
Sarasate, next to Paganini, the best-known violin virtuoso of the 19th century, was a great showman, renowned for his sweet, singing tone and sensuous sound. The Viennese critic Eduard Hanslick, whose pen could be as sharp as a wasp’s sting, took to the Spaniard and wrote: “His tone is incomparable – not powerful or deeply affecting, but of enchanting sweetness.” For Sarasate, this beauty of sound became a double-edged sword. He basked in the praise heaped on his playing of Mendelssohn but grew angry when his Beethoven was described as shallow against that of Joachim. Sarasate smiled all the way to the bank, though – at 3,000 marks, his concert fee in Germany was three times that of Joachim. His concert tours made him famous throughout Europe as well as North and South America.
Sarasate left 54 opus numbers, including four books of Danzas Españolas (Opp. 21, 22, 23 and 26), published by Simrock in Germany between 1877 and 1882. All eight dances – two in each Opus – are broadly and attractively based on folk tunes and a stylized ‘Spanishness.’ The Playera, Op. 23 No. 1 is drawn from two traditional Andalusian songs gathered and published by Isidoro Hernández. Both cante jondo – type Andalusian songs are associated with lament, free rhythm, and vocal inflection, which Sarasate translates into a sustained lyrical violin cantilena.
Sarasate also wrote nine operatic fantasias to display his own virtuosity. The best known of them is the Carmen Fantasy, written in Paris around 1883, where Sarasate taps into the immense popularity of Bizet’s recent opera Carmen (1875). Skipping from one act to another, as Sarasate skillfully reshapes Bizet’s material to create instrumental drama. the Fantasy opens with an Introduction based on the entr’acte before the opera’s final act. Then comes the famous habañera, (L’amour est un oiseau rebelle), Carmen's seductive declaration of independence, cunningly disguised as a love song to both Don José and the opera’s audience. Its characteristic “tra la la” refrain reappears before the seguidilla (Près des remparts de Séville), where Carmen engineers her escape from prison by seducing Don José. For his finale, Sarasate turns to Bizet’s Second Act “Gypsy Song” (Les tringles des sistres tintaient), with its exuberant, physical, slightly dangerous allure, as Carmen sensually draws José toward a life he cannot control.
— Program notes copyright © 2026 Keith Horner. Comments welcomed: khornernotes@gmail.com