Sarasate's Pieces
Hello!
I've been wondering, how would you rank the difficulty of the Sarasate pieces? They aren't very long, and so I want to take up one because I really like his music, but I tried some and they were really hard... so before I blow any more money on them, how do they rank? And also, not just difficulty, but flashiness and overall coolness (:-P) as well. Thanks!
- Wenhao Sun
Replies (13)
I didn't find Sarasate's playing of the Introduction and Tarantella that impressive. I believe Midori plays it at a much faster tempo.
Greetings,
Brian I have heard Midori playing the Tarantella on a numbe rof ocassions. She is indeed one heck of a lot faster than Sarasate, but just beautiful!!!!!!!!It is not so easy to rank Sarasate because some of his pieces are tecnhically 'easy' from a left hand perspective but require fantastic sound and imagination. Playera , for example. Adios Montanos Mios is anothe rbeauty that could be played more often. I would like to hear that arrnaged for two violins so youngsters could get into the syle....
Cheers,
Buri
The Playera's fab, and I personally found it the easiest of his pieces (it's been set for Grade 7 a few times). In contrast to its partner, the frenetic Zapateado, you can make it almost languid in the most dangerous of ways. I think it's got that so-hot-it's-cool quality you're looking for.
Can you guys rank them in order of difficulty from easiest to hardest, and show where zigeunerweisen falls in there?
zigunerweisen is probably in teh middle somewhere.
caprice basque is possibly teh hardest, maybe romanza andaluza is the easiest? i'm no good at these sort of things.
How difficult is Zapateado? can someone playing Lalo play it?
Greetings,
yes and no. Hah!
Pieces like Zapateado are the ultimate test of nerve and control. There is no warm up time or orchestra to hide behind. Of course it is a fantastic piece but it is basically a small number of techniques condensed into a very small time frame. You either have the nerves of steel and the 150% control to toss it off or you play soemthing else.
Cheers,
Buri
Ok, Im going to have a go at ranking the difficulty of sarasate's pieces....
Playera (grade 7)
Caprice Basque (Getting quite tricky)
Habanera
Zigernunweisen (getting even more tricky)
Tarantella
Zapateado
Carmen Fantasy (Ive heard virtuosos stuff the last movement of this up, its that hard)
Im sure plenty of people will disagree with this, and Ive missed a load out, so any sarasate buffs out there lets see what you think ...
Regarding the Carmen Fantasy, can anyone throw any light on something I heard a few years ago, which is that Sarasate's original version was not a continuous piece, and that the version that is played now is in fact an edition by Zimbalist?
Don't overlook Sarasate's Malaguena....charming work!
I've always heard that Sarasate's pieces are only for virtuosos, as he was himself. You really got to master the violin to play them flawlessly and with good sound. And, in my opinion, whenever I listen to his pieces, they exactly feel just like that: pieces for professionals. Meditátion from Thäis is for grade 7 approximately,and it has nothing to do with the difficulty of Sarasate's works.
I've always thought that at its heart, Sarasate's muse is the performer who gives you the feeling that technically and emotionally the music is nonchalantly "tossed off," like an elegant trifle - a musical bon bon - tasteful, an afterthought, a sparkling diamond in sound - musical and emotional champagne, to be be savored and tasted in the moment. And perhaps most of us don't experience moments like that in life, so a performer who can project that and share it with an audience - that is perhaps something really special. That is what I would call "speaking with Sarasate's voice."
This discussion has been archived and is no longer accepting responses.
Violinist.com is made possible by...
Dimitri Musafia, Master Maker of Violin and Viola Cases
Johnson String Instrument/Carriage House Violins
Subscribe
Laurie's Books
Discover the best of Violinist.com in these collections of editor Laurie Niles' exclusive interviews.
Violinist.com Interviews Volume 1, with introduction by Hilary Hahn
Violinist.com Interviews Volume 2, with introduction by Rachel Barton Pine
September 24, 2004 at 08:09 PM · I also love Sarasates music, have you tried Caprice Basque? The 2nd movement is great fun to play. Lots of different 'tricks' like triple stops, harmonics and pizzicato, and the arpeggios that finish the piece off are fantastic. Zigernunwiesen (sic) is another popular one by him, his more difficult works i would suggest are the carmen fantasy and the introduction and tatantella (Due to the speed - I have a recording of sarasate playing this himself from 1904 and its amazing). The spanish dances are really hard too, if played in the sarasate manner - at suicide speed!
John