Pablo de Sarasate was a very distinguished violinist who gave notable premieres of the Lalo's Symphonie Espagnole, Saint-Saens Introduction and Allegro Capriccioso and First Concerto and several Bruch works. Sarasate was part of a group of 19th century violinist-composers, the others being Paganini, Vieuxtemps and Wieniawski. There were also many pianist-composers such as Moscheles, Paderewski, Scharwenka, etc. These odd birds were great virtuosi who were also good enough composers to write works to show off their distinctive abilities, but not good enough composers to write memorable works except in a few cases. This genre did not continue into the 20th century and neither Horowitz nor Rubenstein nor Richter had attempted anything along these lines. Sarasate's works on this disk are very well-crafted and interesting to hear. In one case (noted below), Sarasate reached greatness. His own works are mostly Spanish in flavor, but, oddly enough, his one work to achieve immortality, Zigeunerweisen [Gypsy Airs], is not Spanish and is titled in German. Don't they have gypsies in Spain? At any rate, it's a wonderful work.

Now, I am forced to confess something shameful. I have ignored Ruggiero Ricci because, to me when I was a teenager, he looked more like a wrestler than a violinist. So I have hardly ever heard him. While I still don't know how he'd play the Beethoven Violin Concerto, I can only say that he is a wonderful violinist who plays these virtuoso pieces as if they were Beethoven. As early as the Spanish Dance #1, I noticed that his spiccato was incredibly clean and exciting. In Spanish Dance #5 or #6 the changes of mood were so marvellously captured and there was clarity on the double-stopping. Finally on Dance #8, the Spanish rubato really got to me followed by the disciplined but seemingly orgiastic abandon. The greatest virtuoso playing but not the greatest music is on the Introduction and Tarentella.

For Zigeunerweisen, Ricci changes his tone: greater vibrato but more inward. The first slow part is a lesson in completely free parlando; it seems as if the music is being improvised on the spot. The tension seems impossible to bear and then the "friss" (if these are Hungarian gypsies) breaks out and we care about nothing-let global warming and global terrorism and global overpopulation all go to hell-we're alive now!

Dare I praise the Pristine Audio reproduction one more time without being accused of being a shill for the outfit? Well, how about this? On my Rega Jupiter CD Player and JM Reynaud Concorde Speakers, there is no reproduction; the music is just there.

Reviewer: Bill Rosen

Find out more:

Wikipedia Profile
Biography by John Craton
www.pablosarasate.com

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