Sarasate - Spanish Dances, Opus 23

Violin: Manuel Quiroga, Pontevedra 1892 - 1961. Piano: Marta Leman Date record: 1929 Composer: Pablo Sarasate; Pamplona 1844, Biarritz 1908. ________ Manuel Quiroga was born in an arduosly Pontevedra in 1892. A violin child prodigy, he received the highest academic success when he was still young in Madrid and Paris. In his youth he was a living legend and his family received compliments from all over the world, especially from emigrant Galician communities who saw him as the perfect personification of the future for the region. When he was just about 19 years old he had won, unanimously, the most important violin awards and prizes at the time without exception. Between 1911 and 1936 Quiroga did not stop playing and touring all over Europe, North America and Spanish America achieving the highest success ever in the history of Galician music until then. He also stood out as a composer, cartoonist and caricaturist, his great passion. When his first recordings came to light (1912) his career was consolidated and critics did not hesitate to place him among the best contemporary violinists. At the beginning of 1924 he went back to New York, ten years later after his first visit, to perform at the Carnegie Hall, as part of a new, successful tour of the USA. This tour then continued in Spain, Belgium, Great Britain ... where he played with the most famous conductors and orchestras, such as Sir Thomas Beecham (1879-1961) and the London Symphony or Arturo Toscanini (1867-1957). Favourite dedications: The most varied composers dedicated works to him all throughout the artist's life. The list is too long to include it all here: the famous "Sonata para violín y piano" by Enrique Granados; the fifth of the "Six Études de Concerto" by his teacher Édouard Nadaud (1862-1928); "Sonate pour violon et piano" by Paul Paray; "Les Promis" by Marcel Samuel Rousseau; "Air de Danse" by Roger Penou ... and, especially, the famous "Sonata Op. 27, nº 6" for violin by Eugene Ysaÿe (1858-1931), a major work in the history of the universal repertoire of the violin. But they were not the only ones who thought of Quiroga. Igor Stravinsky and Jan Sibelius admired him profoundly. The beginning of a tragedy: He was at the top of his career, in full artistic maturity. Wherever he went considered a living legend. The popular frenzy created where he played was allways in the press. On 24 September 1931, he was named "Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur": the highest accolade granted by France to a foreigner. The tragedy took place on 8 June 1937 in New York. After saying farewell to Iturbi in Times Square, on their way to their respective hotels after having given a concert together, Quiroga was brutally run over by a lorry. The result was the loss of mobility of his right arm that soon developed into a paralysis. He was never able to play again. Quiroga's successful career to a sudden end forever when he was at the top.

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