The son of a painter of Italian descent, Joaquín Turina was born in Seville, where he became known as a composer and pianist – successes that prompted him to try his luck in Madrid. There, he befriended fellow composer Manuel de Falla, who influenced his ideas on authentic Spanish music. In 1905, Turina moved to Paris, where he studied with Vincent d’Indy at the Schola Cantorum alongside figures such as Debussy and Canteloube. Turina returned to Spain in 1914 – as did Falla – by which time he was considered one of the foremost Spanish composers; he was appointed Professor of Composition at the Madrid Conservatory in 1930.
Turina’s Violin Sonata No.2, Op.82, was written not long after this appointment, in 1934. Dedicated to Pedro Sanjuán – a composer, conductor and teacher – the work is called the ‘Sonata Española’ on account of Turina’s use of Spanish folk music throughout, although the piece also bears the imprint of his French education. Andalusian and gypsy melodies are harmonised in a manner that reflects Parisian experiments in pushing the boundaries of tonality. Even so, there is much to justify the work’s title, such as the opening movement’s variation form of a kind used in Spanish music as far back as the 16th century, with one of the variations in the style of a ‘zortziko’ – a Basque dance with five beats in a bar that also made its way into some of Ravel’s music.
Like Ravel’s mother, Pablo Sarasate was Basque; he came from Pamplona in Navarre. Sarasate was one of the great violinist-composers of the late 19th-early 20th centuries; a virtuoso of prodigious and astonishing ability, prompting George Bernard Shaw to argue that his playing ‘left criticism gasping miles behind him’, while the Hungarian violinist and teacher Carl Flesch wrote in his memoirs of Sarasate’s ‘aesthetic moderation, euphony, and technical perfection … he represented a completely new type of violinist’.
Alongside his Carmen Fantasy, Sarasate’s most famous works are his Spanish Dances – from which we hear the ‘Romanza Andaluza’ – and the dazzling Zigeunerweisen (Gypsy Airs), Op.20. The lilting and lyrical ‘Romanza’ comes from the second volume of Dances, Op.22, written in 1878 during Sarasate’s first Scandinavian tour and dedicated to Moravian violinist Wilma Neruda. The German publisher Simrock, recognising the demand for European folk music, issued the works not long after publishing Brahms’s Hungarian Dances. The two composers had in common another great violinist, Joseph Joachim, the dedicatee of Brahms’s Violin Concerto (also of 1878) – which Sarasate refused to play, complaining that best tune in the slow movement had been given to the oboe instead of the violin.
Sarasate composed his Zigeunerweisen during the same year, conflating Romani gypsy music with Hungarian folk music; the latter formed the basis of the piece. Originally for violin and orchestra, Zigeunerweisen is in one continuous movement divided into different sections, all of which possess a distinct character: Moderato – lento – Un poco più lento – Allegro molto vivace. Sarasate made his own arrangement for violin and piano, which he recorded with fellow composer Joan Manén in 1904.
Enrique Granados was a Catalan composer who studied the piano in Barcelona; as a composer he was essentially self-taught. He spent time at the Paris Conservatoire before returning to Barcelona, and he started to gain international recognition when his 12 Danzas españolas for solo piano were published in 1890; one critic praised their authentic national character and compared Granados favourably with Grieg. Although proud of his Catalan identity, Granados was cosmopolitan in his enjoyment of different national styles: ‘I consider myself as much a Catalan as anyone, but in my music I want to express what I feel … be it Andalusian or Chinese’. He caused a stir when he arrived in New York in 1915, declaring that the world knew nothing of Spanish music, but his presence there was significant – he was the first Spanish composer to be welcomed to America under the auspicious circumstances of an opera premiere – and he was invited to meet President Wilson at the White House.
Granados wrote his single-movement Violin Sonata for his friend, the French violinist Jacques Thibaud, with whom he regularly performed. The work’s date is uncertain, and it was not published until 1971. The Sonata opens unusually, with soft piano chords, after which the violin unfurls a winding melody tinged with Spanish inflections. This is then treated almost cyclically – perhaps showing the influence of Franck and Fauré – the melody varied with spontaneous, increasingly passionate idioms, before the work ends as softly as it began.
The music of Catalan violinist, composer and conductor Eduardo Toldrà is rooted in the harmonies of Granados and Grieg, but frequently follows the contours and rhythms of Catalan folk music. ‘Oració al Maig’ and ‘La Font’ are movements four and six of Toldrà’s Six Sonnets for violin and piano of 1921-22. The eloquent lines and imitative textures of ‘Oració al maig’ (Supplication to the month of May) suggest the influence of Franck’s Violin Sonata (1886), while ‘La Font’ (The Spring) exudes a warmly animated, folk-like sense of anticipation.
Joan Manén was another prodigiously talented Catalan violinist and self-taught composer. As a virtuoso, he was internationally admired from a young age; as a composer he gained the admiration of Richard Strauss and Wagner, and their influence is apparent in his orchestral output. Manén made many arrangements – both vocal and instrumental – of Spanish and Catalan folk melodies, and his love of his native region is also audible in his Four Catalan Caprices of 1898-89, originally for violin and orchestra. The Caprice Catalan No.3, Op.23 (1899) has the Catalan subtitle ‘Planys i goigs’ meaning ‘Laments and joys’. The piece opens with an extended violin soliloquy before the piano joins in, the material for the two instruments intertwining with rapturous ease.
Our recital ends with a traditional Catalan Christmas song, El cant dels ocells or ‘Song of the Birds’, as adapted by Francisco Fullana from the arrangement made by Catalan cellist Pablo Casals. The piece was made famous by Casals, who played his arrangement of the song at the start of every recital during his exile from Francoist Spain; it has become, as a result, a symbol of Catalonia itself.

© Joanna Wyld, 2023