Violinist Arthur Grumiaux performed Éduoard Lalo's Symphonie Espagnole in D Minor, Op. 21, with the Kunstmaand Orkest and conductor Anton Kersjes. The performance was recorded live in February 1964.

Lalo's Symphonie Espagnole was composed in 1874 for Spanish violin virtuoso Pablo de Sarasate, and it received its first public performance in Paris the following year. The piece blends Lalo's characteristically French Romantic style with flavors of Spanish music and dance, which pay tribute to Sarasate's nationality.

While the violin plays a soloistic role throughout the piece, the work's title is a nod to its symphonic scale, in which nearly all sections of the orchestra play an indispensable role. Unusually, the work consists of five movements--a departure from the three-movement structure that was more standard of Romantic concerti.

View Grumiaux's full performance below:

 

Belgian-born violinist Arthur Grumiaux was a graduate of the Charleroi and Royal Conservatories in Brussels, where he studied with Fernand Quinet and Alfred Dubois, and he later pursued advanced studies in Paris with Georges Enescu. A winner of the Vieuxtemps Prize and the Prix de Virtuosité, Grumiaux maintained a partnership with Philips Records for over twenty years. In 1973, Grumiaux was knighted baron by King Baudouin of Belgium for his services to music.