Pablo de Sarasate was born today in 1844 in Spain. He was a virtuoso violinist and composed some amazing show-pieces for the violin.
His most famous is "Zigeunerweisen" ("Gypsy Airs"), a fiery one-movement work for violin and orchestra. Listen to it here played by violinist Jascha Heifetz.
The other piece I'd like to mention is his "Carmen Fantasy", a work for violin and orchestra based on George Bizet's beautiful suites derived from his famous opera, "Carmen". Listen here and here (divided into two videos). This is not only really impressive violin playing (and extremely difficult!), but they are timeless beautiful melodies, at least some of which are very widely familiar.
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Sherlock Holmes was a fan of Sarasate. The story "The Red-Headed League" has a passage describing Holmes' rapture as he attends one of Sarasate's concerts. For many years, that was the only way in which I'd ever heard of Sarasate.
Interesting. I used to read a lot of Sherlock Holmes, but haven't for many years. I may just have to pick up a book with that story...
Speaking as a Holmes aficionado, it's actually one of the best stories.
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