Sarasate, violinist: a virtuoso player

In 1857, at the tender age of 13, when he had just arrived at the Paris Conservatory, considered at that time to be the first music university in the world, the French press was already talking about “his purity of sound and precision, his outstanding technique, and clean staccatos plucked with maximum purity (…)”.

Pablo Sarasate never taught or wrote manuals or didactic essays about his instrument. He was considered a self-taught musician because of his passion, which bloomed so early on in his life, and his innate virtuosity, guided by his own exceptional natural gift for playing the violin. Therefore it is difficult to assess his technical contribution to the instrument aside from the comments made by his contemporaries or by analysing his own compositions.

Sarasate was already an excellent violinist when he arrived in Paris, and he could not be slotted into any European movement. His biographers claim that at this time, “Sarasate played like no one had ever done before or would do again”, which would explain why he was never with different teachers during his training. In the 1870s, he led the modern school of violin.

His teacher at the Paris Conservatory, Delphin Alard, was aware of his pupil’s extraordinary talent and could apparently teach him little other than how to improve his posture. The French school demanded sobriety in this respect and Sarasate applied it to the letter. Many said that it would be impossible “to find a more refined elegance. His gestures, his movements were discreet, reserved and elegant both in his body and his face and the way he placed the instrument”.

His left hand was characterised by “its open use and steady vibrato”.

His bowing complied strictly with the French school. He always sought cleanness and clarity, by means of a stable almost unmoving grip on the bow. “A large sound, broad, at times clean and powerful and at others soft, gentle, almost imperceptible, but always pure and fluid in his spicatto”. He mastered all the different bowing techniques, and he was famed for his ‘sautillé’, an effect he achieved using the bounce of the bow itself.

His tuning was impeccable, creating a sound that was “crystalline, rounded, clean, smooth and tense, always fascinating”, helped by the fact he kept the hair on his bow extremely taught, which favoured certain techniques such as sautillé.

In spite of his virtuosity and mastery of the instrument, he tried to avoid certain effects such as fingered octaves and tenths and trills, as well as left-handed pizzicato.

Prominent critics said in 1874 that “Sarasate is more than just a virtuoso, he is a great artist (…) Absolute precision, flawless technique, firm bowing, vigorous and varied, prodigious confidence in execution, a style filled with greatness and expression, these are the qualities that make Sarasate one of the great artists of our time (…) Once could perhaps wish for a more powerful sound, a touch more vigorous, but never any clearer, cleaner or purer”.

In his biography of the musician, Julio Altadill talks about Sarasate’s mastery qualities: “His flawless technique, (…) the magic and force of his bowing, capable of playing rapid staccatos and rivalling the cello for sonority, the sureness of his hand, the evenness and brilliance of his trills, the wonderful tuning of his notes, even the highest ones, and his crystal clear production, even of the fastest sections, his double string passages and combinations of bowing and pizzicatos, his luminous chromatic scales, his harmonics, so gentle and fluty, his full vigorous tone, rounded and clear, with no harshness or scraping, the elegance and seduction of his manner, the intensity of his expression, the purity, vigour, cleanness, transparency, magnificence, mellowness of his sound… his fingers, so long and slender; hands, firm yet with a lightness of touch (…) his hands, snowy white, taught, transparent, without the slightest trace of a line or lump; his fingers, slender, fine and long; straight phalanges, long and powerful, limbs like wings…”.

I’ve been in Boston for the first time… I know of no other artist who’s been acclaimed in this aristocratic and affluent city as I have. It was crazy…

Complete biography of Pablo Sarasate