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Solo Violin Sonatas 1-6 Op. 27
Eugène Ysaÿe

Solo Violin Sonatas 1-6 Op. 27

Sólveig SteinÞórsdóttir

Label: Challenge Classics
Format: CD
Barcode: 0608917295627
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Catalog number: CC 72956
Releasedate: 02-06-23
- A live recording of Ysaÿe’s six solo Sonatas is a daring endeavour.
- More when the violinist is just 26 years old.
- But we think last October in Winthertur Sólveig Steinþórsdóttir made a really memorable exploit that deserves to be saved and released as a CD.
- This is why Challenge Classics is proud to present the debut recording of a young rising star – at the same time celebrating the 100th anniversary of this unique composition.
In summer of 1923, Eugene Ysaÿe heard his friend Joseph Szigeti perform one of J.S. Bach’s Solo Violin Sonatas. Afterwards, on his way to a sojourn at the beach in Le Zoute, Ysaÿe couldn’t stop thinking about the performance: “When one hears an artist like Szigeti, who is able to accommodate his playing to the rectangular lines of the great classics as easily as he can to the expressive melodies of the romantics, one feels how absorbing it would be to compose a work for the violin whilst keeping ever before one the style of one particular violinist.” On arrival at the resort, Ysaÿe disappeared into his room for a couple of days and emerged with sketches of Six Violin Sonatas (Op. 27), each imagined with the sound and style of a specific artist ringing in his ears.

The first of these Op. 27 sonatas is dedicated to Szigeti. Ysaÿe’s Sonata No. 2 was written for Jacques Thibaud. The Sonata No. 4 was written for Fritz Kreisler.

The other three sonatas move away from Bach in their style and substance, focusing more exclusively on the violinist dedicatees. No. 3 was for the Romanian violinist and composer George Enescu. The Fifth Sonata, written for Ysaÿe’s favorite student Matthieu Crickboom, is in a completely different mood than the others. Ysaÿe’s final entry in the set, written for the Spanish violinist Manuel Quiroga, is a sequence of dances and arias linked by improvisatory cadenzas.