SKU: HL.370317

ISBN 9781581068887. UPC: 840126993639. 9.0x12.0x0.173 inches.

Georges Bizet's opera Carmen had its first performance in Paris in 1875. In the audience was the 17-year-old Hungarian violin virtuoso and budding composer Jeno Hubay. After the performance Hubay started writing his Carmen Fantasy from memory. The following season for his debut recital in Paris, he included his newly created composition. It is a lyrical work of great beauty and brilliance. Hubay combined his career of a concertizing virtuoso, composer and violin pedagogue. At the Royal Conservatory in Brussels he became the successor of Vieuxtemps and Wieniawski. Later, Franz Liszt invited Hubay to lead the violin department in the newly created Budapest Music Academy. He created the world-renowned Hungarian school of violin playing. His student, Franz von Vecsey, recorded theCarmen Fantasy in 1904 at age 11! His other students included Joseph Szigeti, Zoltan Szekely, Sandor Vegh, Endre Gertler, Gyorgy Garay and many more. Hubay was a very active composer, creating over 120 works including operas, ballets, concertos, songs and instrumental compositions. Pablo de Sarasate wrote his Carmen Fantasy in 1882. It is a composition of drama and passion, written with his unparalleled brilliance for violin writing. This work has remained in the standard repertory, on programs of virtuoso soloists, as well as a required work for major competitions..

SKU: PR.ZM28230

SKU: HL.49047018

UPC: 842819103813. 9.0x12.0x0.083 inches.

Whilst Horowitz toured across Russia with violinist Nathan Milstein, the two regularly played Pablo de Sarasate's Carmen Fantasy op.25, for violin and orchestra, based on the opera by Bizet. Horowitz was bored of the sparse orchestral reduction and started writing his own transcription after discovering Moritz Moszkowski's arrangement of the same piece for solo piano. Thus emerged Variations on a Theme from Bizet's Carmen. The transcription was made in 1926 and was regularly played and further developed by Horowitz until 1978. Technically challenging and written in a virtuoso manner, this edition is based on a recording from 1947 and is suitable for advanced piano players.