Georges Bizet (1838-1875) and Eduard Lalo (1823-1892)
With a side serving of Pablo de Sarasate (1844-1908)
By Judith Eckelmeyer
(GRACE WOODS MUSIC SESSION AUGUST 17, 2026)
A comment before the main information: For some reason (which may become clear as we go) I’ll be presenting the notes from a more informal, nay, even personal perspective. I hope you will find something to intrigue you with this new approach. Enjoy….
You may (or not) be wondering how and why I choose the music for each listening session. Each week’s choices are made for different reasons: sometimes it’s a seasonal thing, sometimes I have been recalling, via an earworm, a piece that has special connotations or connections for me, sometimes it’s purely a random choice after I look at my CD cabinets. This session started to take shape with an earworm and a family connection, to wit:
My mother’s youngest sister, Peg, was 17 years old when I was born, so I grew up knowing her as a sometimes baby-sitter. By the time I had matured to college age, she was married and a mother of 4, eventually to be 5 kids. She, like her siblings, (and I and my younger brother and sister) had experienced a diet of classical music from day one, thanks to her father’s (my grandfather’s) record collection and musical preference. (I and my siblings were afforded that environment because we and our parents lived with Gran, who had lost his wife before I was born.) That classical music heritage was a legacy Aunt Peg passed on to her children as they were growing up in New Jersey.
It wasn’t until some years later that Aunt Peg’s oldest, Cousin Peg, revealed just how well those cousins had absorbed the music that they had heard in their own home, and how it acquired utility for them as they grew up. This is my remembrance of Cousin Peg’s story:
Aunt Peg’s record collection contained a number of standard works of Beethoven, Tchaikowsky and other 19th-century composers. None of that Baroque “peedle-dee” or modern “noise”, of course! But a newer recording had come out of Bizet’s Symphony in C, which Aunt Peg found irresistible. Her kids, being very perceptive, noticed this. As active, rambunctious, and mischievous youngsters, they often wore Aunt Peg’s none too Job-like patience down to a nub, and that precipitated a showdown. In the midst of this chaos, Cousin Peg or one of the other kids had the presence of mind to take out the record of Bizet’s Symphony in C and start it playing on the record player. Almost instantly, the parental harangue stopped. The kids scattered. A peaceful quiet descended on the household as Aunt Peg settled down to listen to the music that warmed her heart and filled her day with joy!
My mother’s youngest sister, Peg, was 17 years old when I was born, so I grew up knowing her as a sometimes baby-sitter. By the time I had matured to college age, she was married and a mother of 4, eventually to be 5 kids. She, like her siblings, (and I and my younger brother and sister) had experienced a diet of classical music from day one, thanks to her father’s (my grandfather’s) record collection and musical preference. (I and my siblings were afforded that environment because we and our parents lived with Gran, who had lost his wife before I was born.) That classical music heritage was a legacy Aunt Peg passed on to her children as they were growing up in New Jersey.
It wasn’t until some years later that Aunt Peg’s oldest, Cousin Peg, revealed just how well those cousins had absorbed the music that they had heard in their own home, and how it acquired utility for them as they grew up. This is my remembrance of Cousin Peg’s story:
Aunt Peg’s record collection contained a number of standard works of Beethoven, Tchaikowsky and other 19th-century composers. None of that Baroque “peedle-dee” or modern “noise”, of course! But a newer recording had come out of Bizet’s Symphony in C, which Aunt Peg found irresistible. Her kids, being very perceptive, noticed this. As active, rambunctious, and mischievous youngsters, they often wore Aunt Peg’s none too Job-like patience down to a nub, and that precipitated a showdown. In the midst of this chaos, Cousin Peg or one of the other kids had the presence of mind to take out the record of Bizet’s Symphony in C and start it playing on the record player. Almost instantly, the parental harangue stopped. The kids scattered. A peaceful quiet descended on the household as Aunt Peg settled down to listen to the music that warmed her heart and filled her day with joy!
Georges Bizet photographed by Étienne Carjat (1875)
Now, I am not sure if all the details are truly accurate, but the meat of the tale certainly is! And there’s a reason for the charm that engulfed my aunt in such an Orphic way. This one symphony is very different from Bizet’s music for Carmen, for instance, or most of Bizet’s other compositions. First, it was a student work fulfilling an assignment, presumably from his composition teacher Charles Gounod at the Paris Conservatoire. He wrote it in 1855, just after he turned 17, and had no intention of having it performed or published.
Charles Gounod, a mentor and inspiration to Bizet in the latter's Conservatoire years
Second, Bizet never brought the work to light, and there was no reference to it in any of his letters—and there may be a reason for that! (see below) Early biographers of Bizet had no inkling of its existence. The score languished in obscurity in archives until 1933 when French musicologist Jean Chantavoine discovered it. Through Bizet’s British biographer, D. C. Parker, the score soon reached Felix Weingartner, the conductor who led the premiere performance in 1935 in Basel, Switzerland.
The Symphony in C has a classical orchestra of 2 flute, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 1 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani and strings. It is organized in the standard classical 4 movements: 1. Allegro vivo; 2. Andante, Adagio; 3. Scherzo: Allegro vivace; 4. Finale. Allegro vivace. There is a charm and pervading joyfulness to the music, and it was acclaimed a masterpiece on the order of Mendelssohn’s Overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
But why didn’t Bizet present this charming early work to the public? Scholars now think it was because he had “borrowed” recognizable portions from a composition written the year before he wrote his—the Symphony in D by his teacher, none other than Charles Gounod. Strong similarities between the two occur in each of Bizet’s symphony’s movements. There’s an excellent discussion of the details in the Wikipedia article on the Symphony in C, concluding that in effect Bizet was actually using the process to learn compositional techniques for symphonies, which were not the principle focus of attention in 19th-century French music (opera and ballet were!) Typically, such compositions by students at the Conservatoire were pieces intended as applications for the Prix de Rome, a highly sought-after scholarship bringing the winner a stipend supporting a three- to five-year stay in Rome, all expenses paid.
The interesting take-away is that critics thought that Bizet’s delightful student work is superior to Gounod’s, “showing a precocious and sophisticated grasp of harmonic language and design, as well as originality and melodic inspiration”. (Wikipedia, Bizet’s Symphony in C.)
The Symphony in C has a classical orchestra of 2 flute, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 1 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani and strings. It is organized in the standard classical 4 movements: 1. Allegro vivo; 2. Andante, Adagio; 3. Scherzo: Allegro vivace; 4. Finale. Allegro vivace. There is a charm and pervading joyfulness to the music, and it was acclaimed a masterpiece on the order of Mendelssohn’s Overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
But why didn’t Bizet present this charming early work to the public? Scholars now think it was because he had “borrowed” recognizable portions from a composition written the year before he wrote his—the Symphony in D by his teacher, none other than Charles Gounod. Strong similarities between the two occur in each of Bizet’s symphony’s movements. There’s an excellent discussion of the details in the Wikipedia article on the Symphony in C, concluding that in effect Bizet was actually using the process to learn compositional techniques for symphonies, which were not the principle focus of attention in 19th-century French music (opera and ballet were!) Typically, such compositions by students at the Conservatoire were pieces intended as applications for the Prix de Rome, a highly sought-after scholarship bringing the winner a stipend supporting a three- to five-year stay in Rome, all expenses paid.
The interesting take-away is that critics thought that Bizet’s delightful student work is superior to Gounod’s, “showing a precocious and sophisticated grasp of harmonic language and design, as well as originality and melodic inspiration”. (Wikipedia, Bizet’s Symphony in C.)
Bizet's - Symphony in C
00:00 Allegro vivo
08:06 Andante. Adagio
19:29 Allegro vivace
25:28 Finale. Allegro vivace
Netherlands Chamber Orchestra Gordan Nikolić, violin / musical director
00:00 Allegro vivo
08:06 Andante. Adagio
19:29 Allegro vivace
25:28 Finale. Allegro vivace
Netherlands Chamber Orchestra Gordan Nikolić, violin / musical director
Photograph of Lalo, c. 1865
Now, let’s consider a work by Éduard Lalo, a less well-known French composer writing Spanish-style music in a composition he called a symphony but it wasn’t exactly a symphony! And where would he have been without Pablo de Sarasate???
Lalo was from the very north of France, Lille, which seems contradictory to his interest in Spanish music. But this was at a time in Europe when writers, painters, and composers were mining exotic influences for their works, especially from Scotland, the Middle East, and of course Spain. Both regions had distinctly different cultures from central European countries, thus piquing the imagination of creative artists from areas of relatively conventional traditions for their time and locale. Although trained at the Paris Conservatoire, he had a heck of a time having his works recognized; at one point his music was considered too “progressive”, “too Wagnerian!” But the truth is that his music is distinctive, colorful, melodic and expressive.
Lalo was from the very north of France, Lille, which seems contradictory to his interest in Spanish music. But this was at a time in Europe when writers, painters, and composers were mining exotic influences for their works, especially from Scotland, the Middle East, and of course Spain. Both regions had distinctly different cultures from central European countries, thus piquing the imagination of creative artists from areas of relatively conventional traditions for their time and locale. Although trained at the Paris Conservatoire, he had a heck of a time having his works recognized; at one point his music was considered too “progressive”, “too Wagnerian!” But the truth is that his music is distinctive, colorful, melodic and expressive.
Pablo de Sarasate, c. 1890
As a string player, Lalo was active in chamber ensembles through his life. And thereby is the connection with Pablo de Sarasate (1844-1908), a Spanish virtuoso violinist, composer and conductor whose influence was felt by Saint-Saëns, Max Bruch, Antonín Dvořák. His Zigeunerweisen (Gypsy Airs), Spanish Dances, and fantasies on famous opera tunes from Carmen and other popular works are still performed. Having first studied in Madrid, he moved to Paris to study at the Paris Conservatoire, then began what became a 30-year world tour. Whom but Sarasate would Lalo choose to premiere his Symphonie espagnole? (I don’t know if the two ever met.)
So, when is a symphony not a symphony? When it is a clandestine concerto! The Symphonie espagnole of 1874 (curiously, predating Bizet’s Carmen by a year) might better be thought of as a kind of sinfonia concertante, a genre from the Baroque that features several solo instruments against a larger ensemble; today this work is generally considered a violin concerto. The orchestra is quite substantially romantic, having a piccolo, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, timpani, snare drum, triangle, harp and strings.
Lalo structured it in 5 movements:
1.Allegro non troppo—not too fast
2.Scherzando: Allegro molto—very fast
3.Intermezzo: Allegretto non troppo
4.Andante—moderate pace, walking
5.Rondo: Allegro—bright, fast, cheerful
This vibrant work is full of Spanish-isms—rhythms, colors. I don’t think I’ve ever heard the Cleveland Orchestra perform it over the nearly 50 years I’ve been attending their performances. Perhaps you will find Lalo’s composition a pleasant surprise!
So, when is a symphony not a symphony? When it is a clandestine concerto! The Symphonie espagnole of 1874 (curiously, predating Bizet’s Carmen by a year) might better be thought of as a kind of sinfonia concertante, a genre from the Baroque that features several solo instruments against a larger ensemble; today this work is generally considered a violin concerto. The orchestra is quite substantially romantic, having a piccolo, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, timpani, snare drum, triangle, harp and strings.
Lalo structured it in 5 movements:
1.Allegro non troppo—not too fast
2.Scherzando: Allegro molto—very fast
3.Intermezzo: Allegretto non troppo
4.Andante—moderate pace, walking
5.Rondo: Allegro—bright, fast, cheerful
This vibrant work is full of Spanish-isms—rhythms, colors. I don’t think I’ve ever heard the Cleveland Orchestra perform it over the nearly 50 years I’ve been attending their performances. Perhaps you will find Lalo’s composition a pleasant surprise!
Édouard Lalo: Symphonie espagnole d-Moll op. 21
I. Allegro non troppo 00:00
II. Scherzando. Allegro molto 08:45
III. Intermezzo. Allegretto non troppo 13:16
IV. Andante 20:15
V. Rondo. Allegro 27:28
hr-Sinfonieorchester – Frankfurt Radio Symphony ∙ Guido Sant’Anna, Violine ∙ Alain Altinoglu, Dirigent
I. Allegro non troppo 00:00
II. Scherzando. Allegro molto 08:45
III. Intermezzo. Allegretto non troppo 13:16
IV. Andante 20:15
V. Rondo. Allegro 27:28
hr-Sinfonieorchester – Frankfurt Radio Symphony ∙ Guido Sant’Anna, Violine ∙ Alain Altinoglu, Dirigent
Judith Eckelmeyer ©2026
Choose Your Direction
The Magic Flute, II,28.
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