Pablo de Sarasate photo violin violinist

Description

Hello!
For sale I have a period postcard photo of violinist Pablo de Sarasate.  A very beautiful work. Unused. I'm not sure which country this was made in.  I don't recognize the language of the print on the reverse.   Fine condition. Wear from age.  3.5 x 5.5 inches.  USPS Priority Mail insured.
I have been a professional violinist for 20 years. I currently teach violin at University of California, Berkeley, and play Concertmaster for the Sacramento Philharmonic and Opera. I've been buying and selling music memorabilia on eBay since it was invented and I've been buying antique art from European and American auction houses for a decade. All pieces for sale are guaranteed authentic and come from my personal collection, which numbers in the thousands. To learn more about me visit www.danflanaganviolin.com.
Pablo Martín Melitón de Sarasate y Navascués
(10 March 1844 – 20 September 1908) was a Spanish
violin
virtuoso
,
composer
and
conductor
of the
Romantic
period.
Gypsy Airs
is one of his most popular compositions and a favorite among violin virtuosos.
Pablo Sarasate was born in
Pamplona
,
Navarre
, the son of an artillery bandmaster. Apparently, after seeing his father struggle with a passage for a long time, he picked up the violin and played it perfectly. He began studying the violin with his father at the age of five and later took lessons from a local teacher. His musical talent became evident early on and he appeared in his first public concert in
A Coruña
at the age of eight.
His performance was well-received, and caught the attention of a wealthy patron who provided the funding for Sarasate to study under Manuel Rodríguez Saez in
Madrid
, where he gained the favor of
Queen Isabella II
. Later, as his abilities developed, he was sent to study under
Jean-Delphin Alard
at the
Paris Conservatoire
at the age of twelve.
There, at seventeen, Sarasate entered a competition for the Premier Prix and won his first prize, the Conservatoire's highest honor. (No other Spanish violinist achieved this until
Manuel Quiroga
did so in 1911; Quiroga was frequently compared to Sarasate throughout his career.)
Sarasate, who had been publicly performing since childhood, made his Paris debut as a concert violinist in 200800690, and played in
London
the following year. Over the course of his career, he toured many parts of the world, performing in
Europe
,
North America
, and
South America
. His artistic pre-eminence was due principally to the purity of his tone, which was free from any tendency towards the sentimental or rhapsodic, and to that impressive facility of execution that made him a virtuoso. In his early career, Sarasate performed mainly
opera
fantasies, most notably the
Fantasía Carmen
, and various other pieces that he had composed. The popularity of Sarasate's Spanish flavour in his compositions is reflected in the work of his contemporaries. For example, the influences of Spanish music can be heard in such notable works as
Édouard Lalo
's
Symphonie espagnole
which was dedicated to Sarasate;
Georges Bizet
's
Carmen
; and
Camille Saint-Saëns
'
Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso
, written expressly for Sarasate and dedicated to him.
Of Sarasate's idiomatic writing for his instrument, the playwright and music critic
George Bernard Shaw
once declared that though there were many composers of music for the violin, there were but few composers of violin music. Of Sarasate's talents as performer and composer, Shaw said that he "left criticism gasping miles behind him". Sarasate's own compositions are mainly show-pieces designed to demonstrate his exemplary technique. Perhaps the best known of his works is
Zigeunerweisen
(1878), a work for violin and orchestra. Another piece, the
Fantasía Carmen
(1883), also for violin and orchestra, makes use of themes from Georges Bizet's opera
Carmen
. Probably his most performed encores are his two books of Spanish dances, brief pieces designed to please the listener's ear and show off the performer's talent. He also made arrangements of a number of other composers' work for violin, and composed sets of variations on "potpourris" drawn from operas familiar to his audiences, such as his Fantasia on
La forza del destino
(his Opus 1), his "Souvenirs de
Faust
", or his variations on themes from
Die Zauberflöte
.
At
Brussels
, he met
Berthe Marx
, who traveled with him as soloist and accompanist on his tours through Europe, Mexico, and the US; playing in about 600 concerts. She also arranged Sarasate's Spanish dances for the piano.
[1]
In 1904, he made a small number of recordings. In all his travels Sarasate returned to Pamplona each year for the
San Fermín
festival.
Sarasate died in
Biarritz
,
France
, on 20 September 1908, from chronic bronchitis. He bequeathed his violin, made by
Antonio Stradivari
in 1724, to the
Musée de la Musique
. The violin now bears his name as the
Sarasate Stradivarius
in his memory. His second Stradivari violin, the
Boissier
of 1713, is now owned by
Real Conservatorio Superior de Música, Madrid
. Among his violin pupils was
Alfred de Sève
. The Pablo Sarasate International Violin Competition is held in Pamplona.
A number of works for violin were dedicated to Sarasate, including
Henryk Wieniawski
's
Violin Concerto No. 2
,
Édouard Lalo
's
Symphonie espagnole
,
Camille Saint-Saëns
'
Violin Concerto No. 3
and his
Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso
,
Max Bruch
's
Scottish Fantasy
, and
Alexander Mackenzie
's
Pibroch Suite
. Also inspired by Sarasate is
William H. Potstock
's
Souvenir de Sarasate
.