Pablo de Sarasate
Spanish violinist and composer (1844–1908)
Pablo Martín Melitón de Sarasate y Navascués (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈpaβlo saɾaˈsate]; 10 March 1844 – 20 September 1908) was a Spanish virtuoso violinist, composer, and conductor of the Romantic period. His best known works include Zigeunerweisen (Gypsy Airs), the Spanish Dances, and the Carmen Fantasy.
Biography
Sarasate was born in Pamplona, Navarre, in 1844, the son of Don Miguel Sarasate, a local 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 La 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, his parents decided to send him to study under Jean-Delphin Alard at the Paris Conservatoire at the age of twelve. Aboard the train en route to Paris, his mother (who had been accompanying him) died of a heart attack at the Spanish-French border, and Sarasate was found to be suffering from cholera. The Spanish Consul in Bayonne took Sarasate to his home and nursed him back to health, then financed his trip to Paris.
There, Sarasate auditioned successfully for Alard, who arranged for him to live with his colleague Théodore de Lassabathie, administrator of the Conservatoire.
“Pablo de Sarasate” enters the record as spanish violinist and composer (1844–1908). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Pablo, Sarasate and Spanish can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 29, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q204503. VIAF identifies the subject as 17408844. The Library of Congress control number is n80122953. 4 of 5 selected statements include explicit references; 2 carry qualifiers and 1 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1844 and 1908.
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This entry incorporates text from “Pablo de Sarasate” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.