Zigeunerweisen, op.20 - Gypsy Airs
performed May 12, 2002

Pablo de Sarasate was born in Pamplona on March 10, 1844. He studied violin at the Paris Conservatory with Alard and Reber, and was already an acknowledged virtuoso before graduation. Saint-Saëns, Bruch, Lalo and others composed works for him, relishing his new approach to the violin, with a dazzling technique and singing tone. In addition to being one of the most important (if not the most important) violin virtuosos of his day, Sarasate was also a devoted chamber muscian. He published many concert showpieces for violin, including arrangements of Spanish airs, Zigeunerweisen (1878), and Carmen Fantasy (1883). He died in Biarritz on September 20, 1908. His compositions are rarely acknowledged with any seriousness today, instead viewed as technical demonstrations for the soloist.

Zigeurnerweisen (Gypsy Airs) is a fine concert work, once enormously popular with violinists, but rarely heard nowadays in the concert hall as the convention has strengthened that soloists play concertos at concerts. The Gypsy Airs are 'Hungarian' after the manner of Brahms and Liszt rather than the 'authentic' idiom of Bartok and Kodaly, but they do follow the traditional lassu-friss or slow-quick pattern of the true Hungarian Rhapsody. The sweet, somewhat plaintive slow section changes with bold fanfare into a helter-skelter which piles up technical challenges for the soloist while never failing to ravish the listener's ear.

The transcription for cello is by Werner Thomas-Mifune, principal cellist of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra.