1856

In March, he performed at Madrid’s Royal Theatre and in May at the Royal Palace, home to Queen Isabella II, where news of his extraordinary musical precocity soon spread round the circles of high society. The Queen ordered an annual endowment to fund his musical tuition.

In July, he moved to Paris, which was to be his main place of residence for the rest of his life. In fact, France became his adopted home or “second home” as Sarasate called it. During this trip, accompanied by his mother, he spent two days in Pamplona for his First Communion and to perform two concerts in his home town.

A few days later, he gave another concert in San Sebastian, and whilst travelling to Paris, his mother died of cholera in Bayonne. The Spanish consulate in this French city, Ignacio García y Echeverría, a fellow native of Pamplona, administered a scholarship for Sarasate provided by the Regional Government of Navarre, allowing him to study at the Paris Conservatory under the guidance of the violinist Delphin Alard. He was adopted by the Lassabathie family. Through his three endowments, he received the annual sum of 14,000 reales.

He began to compose regularly, and continued to do so until he died. He composed at least 54 violin concertos, as well as orchestral arrangements of some of them, piano accompaniments and versions of classical works and pieces for the violin.

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Complete biography of Pablo Sarasate