Sarasate Plays Sarasate Tarantella

[rodcrippler]

if Pablo played it fast and loud himself, why are some performers rearranging this composition?

[humpfrog]

ppl who press the dislike button are obvious idiots!!! Go back to listening to your stupid rap music!!!

[gabrirocks987]

this.is.amazing. Thank you so much for such a rare recording!! I was wondering whether I could have the mp3, my younger brother is learning this piece and what better recording to have than the compose himself playing it !! Thank you!!

[kooltique]

wow

[ovyboia]

such a beast.

[Flaminggential]

i think...today's violinists just got outclassed

[WAMEDJO]

@Flaminggential

Ancients were better virtuosos and composers. Just check out Saint-Saëns playing at the piano, it's from the same "tonneau" as French say ("acabit"). Is it because TV and social networks didn't exist at the time ? I'm thankfull to YouTube though. But it's sad that there's no piano-roll with Liszt playing his sonata. For a few years... I'm unconsolable.

[bobstronge]

WOW

[Grobanite122549]

OH SWEET!!!! :O

[gimaru1]

Great great violinist! thanks for posting such a rare recording

[HM0880]

What a rich, unique sound from 1:37-1:50! The whole performance is absolutely fantastic. Thank you so much for posting this rare gem!

[siouxjewbaby]

I love the sound of crackling records!!

[spartanjaws]

this is just my thoughts i think Sarasate would be tied with paganini for best violen player ever

[davidgee100]

pretty spectacular. This guy was spectacular, especially coming out of Spain, which really didn't have a great string tradition.

[Fastopen]

Who says that there isn't great string tradition in Spain?

Check Jesus de Monasterio, Pablo Casals among others.

[davidgee100]

My teacher was one of the REAL Casals students, studying with Casals in Prades three times every two weeks! Casals and Sarasate were not the norm in Spain at that time.

[davidgee100]

I love Spain deeply, but there was not a great tradition of string playing in Spain. There IS a tradition of wind and brass playing.

[jasonform]

uau 2 people and i never heard about jesus.

[Fastopen]

Probably it is due to the fact that you only know the composers that the whole world knows, so don´t satirize about it.

[milstein91]

composer,not violinist.

[hanjiangs]

superb.. am drooling..

[ipmoic]

His greatness is evident to anyone with ears. I feel certain that the introduction was omitted because of the time constraints on these ancient recordings.

[takhirviolinest]

yes, I think best violinest how wrote and play.

[richygm16]

What a career this man had! More than forty works written for him by (amongst others) Saint-Saens, Bruch, Dvorak, Wieniawski, Joachim, Sauret, and Lalo (just look at those names!), and streets named after him in Paris, Pamplona, Biarritz, and Madrid.

[richygm16]

One of the seven greatest violinists of all time, in my view. (Paganini, Wieniawski, Joachim, Sarasate, Ysaye, Kreisler, Heifetz.)

[P0RGAK]

For me, any list of the seven greatest has to include Nathan Milstein. Whoever got bumped from your list, it would not be Sarasate.

[jasonform]

And tell me how can you know how paganini played,or wieniawsky??have you heard them?

No,so don't make stupid lists

[richygm16]

It's all well-documented.

[SpoonsForks]

@richygm16 Paganini =)))

[geemusic1]

this makes one re-think the image of quality of 18th century performers. Gtanted, Sarasate as quite a leading violinist, but it is justly so.

[richygm16]

For all friends and admirers of Sarasate, such as myself, the great violin teacher Carl Flesch, who knew him, wrote extensively about him in his autobiography. Sarasate, he said, was a revolutionary violinist, not so much on account of fingering technique (this had already been stretched to its limits by Paganini/Wieniawski/Ernst), but firstly because he played in tune (Ysaye said: It was he who taught us to play exactly.) and because he played with a frictionless tone.

[ajanta76]

Pablo ! Quel magnifique violoniste !

Marc Tettiravou.

[vlhere]

wow...Sarasate ur great...i wish i was in ur time...

[richygm16]

bear in mind that when he recorded this, in 1904, he was 60, and 60 in 1904 was the equivalent of 70, today.

[Curatica]

Why 70 and not 100, it would make it even more impressive...

[festershred]

so are you saying the years were longer back then?

or is 60 yrs. just straight up 60 years? cuz i think its the latter... but this is awesome considering he died 4 years later

[richygm16]

No, Im saying people aged more quickly then because of poorer living conditions, nutrition, etc. I agree about the playing, but Carl Flesch, who knew him, said his playing deteriorated in later years. In his prime, he must have been both the Kreisler and the Heifetz of the 19th Century: nobody produced a more beautiful sound and nobody played more perfectly. Just look at the works written for him. The list is longer than for any other violinist, I believe.

[systemofcrux]

I think Perlman is just as quick, and this is really a wonderful recording, Im glad I listened to it...haha...and here I thought I could get away with playing it slow *siiiigh* here we go again! ^____^.. ~Lisa

[richygm16]

When listening to this recording, and others by him, I think we need to near in mind that recording sides were very short at this time. Sarasate was a well-known speed merchant, but I am not certain he would have played some of his recorded pieces (this and the Bach, for example) as fast as this in live concert. He may have been trying to squeeze the whole piece onto the disc.

[bixvenuti]

@richygm16 I doubt that Sarasate was racing to beat the time limit imposed by 78 rpm records, at least in this instance. I have a copy of the original 78 and there is quite a bit of "dead wax" at the end of this side as well as the Bach Prelude -- there's definitely room for another full minute at least. He could have played a great deal slower if he wanted without the risk of running out of time.

[richygm16]

@bixvenuti Interesting. But I don't think the original recordings were made on 78s, were they?

[bixvenuti]

@richygm16 Yes, the original recordings were made on 10" discs. Actually, in those early days, the 78 rpm speed was not yet standardized, and the Sarasate recordings actually play at about 73.64 rpm. To help phonograph owners calibrate their machines to the proper playback speed, the original record has a small inner band where Sarasate plays a continuous "A" for about ten seconds. (Listening carefully, you can even hear other people talking in the studio during the tuning tone!)

[richygm16]

@bixvenuti So, do you have any theory as to why he omitted the Introduction here, and the slow part of Ziguenerweisen when making these recordings?

[bixvenuti]

@richygm16 Adding the introduction would have added another 60-90 seconds to the recording, and that would have been really pushing the time limit of the 10-inch record. Editing pieces to omit repeats or even entire sections was common in the early days of recording to accommodate the time limitations. To be sure the performance didn't go over time, I believe Sarasate would have cut the piece before he would have significantly sped up his performance. Just my two cents.

[richygm16]

@bixvenuti Thanks for these insights. So it looks as if he fully intended to play the Bach as fast as he did, simply turning it into a display piece. I find the performance hypnotic - he's my favourite violinist - but, of course, more serious commentators have said: That's not the way it should be played!

[x1235791113x]

this isnt a great recording, but we're lucky to have it none the less.

[Jextxadore]

Hmm...I could try filtering the noise in Final Cut when I have time =)

Although to anyone who has time and is willing to help, Audacity's probably the best for audio filtering (you'll have to remove the video part sorry Aimson)

Then again, if you got it off a CD, you definitely added the pictures yourself, so it shouldn't be too hard =)

[aimson]

sweet, here is the original mp3:

mediafire.c0m/?eyelxs3dgmc

[TripleRhu]

@Jextxadore I tried doing it on Audacity, and NO. Audacity is not that great for audio filtering IMO :(

[Jextxadore]

Could you possibly apply a few filters to cut out the background noise a bit please? I can just make out the sound, it's beautiful beyond anything I've heard in my life, but if it were clearer, we'd all be amazed, even those who've never heard of him before!

[aimson]

I think it's already digitally remastered. Well I'm assuming so since it came off a CD. If you know anybody who can filter the noise better than a professional studio, please let me know so I can hear it too!

[siouxjewbaby]

I love the sound of crackling records!!

[takamori400]

Bravo!!!

[BarNuun]

Is he adding many little notes and flourishes that are not in the usual score, especially toward the end? Allowing for the missing Intro, he is faster than anyone, it seems. Very precious.

[ItzhakRoxMySox]

Hmmm... Perlman? Perlman.

[yayayaaa]

Hah, a recording of Paganini playing - that'd be like amazing beyond anything to hear.

[Waeweas]

Damn that's hot.

[sab3156]

Do any recordings exist of "The Sarasate of the Guitar", Francisco Tarrega? That would be quite interesting.

[seebelious]

i loved his sound on the 4th string. Isn´t that rare?

[billentyu007]

sarasate gypsy bead-roll it had been play to hear also the one biggest fiddler it had been in the world.

[winrx]

Amazing sound, both technically and "violinistically" - there are certainly better played versions but few can match the style and flair that he possesess (sic). BTW any aficionados familiar with the recording with Anshel Brusilov and the Phil Orch from the 60s (OTP?)- that's a favorite of mine and his tempo for the tarantella is peerless.

[cornel999]

many years ago someone let me borrow that recording - solos by several first chair players in the Phil. that was amazing playing, super fast, and powerful. didn't he have a second cut on that album, something slow?

[Galilea13]

Please post Milsteins recording!!!

[felixmendelssohn]

thanks for posting

[dostc]

Is there any chance that any recording of Paganini could ever exist ????

[zigeunerviolin]

No, he died in 1840 and I think wasn't playing in the last few years of his life and recording technology didn't exist at that time.

[ATaneva]

Pablo Martín Melitón de Sarasate y Navascués (March 10, 1844 - September 28, 1908

[zigeunerviolin]

I was talking about Paganini. He died in 1840. It was a reply to dostc.