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Most classical composers were—and still are—competent performers. A few were actually leading virtuosos of their day, and, as such, contributed invaluably to their instrument’s repertoire. Representative keyboard players in this elite group were Chopin, Liszt, Busoni, and Rachmaninoff; violinists included Vivaldi, Paganini, Kreisler, and the great Belgian player Eugène Ysaÿe (1858–1931).
Ysaÿe’s most important compositions were his six sonatas for unaccompanied violin, pieces that test both the technical and musical chops of the very best performers. There have been dozens of recordings of the complete sonatas over the past half-century, from Ruggiero Ricci (1974) to Hilary Hahn (2023)—and now this one. Ysaÿe composed each Sonata for a younger violin-playing colleague, identifying that artist’s style and occasionally other aspects of the musician’s character. For example, No. 6 in E Major, written for the Spanish violinist Manuel Quiroga, references habanera and tango dance forms. Dedicated to Jacques Thibaud, No. 2 in A Minor riffs on the doom-ridden Dies irae motive, a gentle poke at Thibaud’s well-known hypochondria. Not surprisingly, J.S. Bach—who composed the greatest of all solo violin sonatas—is a touchstone, especially for No. 1 in G Minor, dedicated to Joseph Szigeti, a highly regarded Bach interpreter. All of the sonatas are supremely difficult to play, but these challenges should never obscure the musical coherence they possess.
Ysaÿe’s violin for more than 30 years—he called it “the most faithful companion of my life”—was his 1640 Guarneri del Gesù. It was subsequently used by Isaac Stern and, from 2010 to 2022, on loan from the Nippon Music Foundation, by the Armenian violinist Sergey Khachatryan. This Naïve release is the first recording of the Sonatas on the composer’s own instrument, and Khachatryan certainly does justice to the occasion. He inhabits the pieces, responding to every emotional twist and turn, and is completely unfazed by their considerable violinistic challenges. The recording is excellent, close up but not claustrophobic, and tonally rich—it’s obvious that we’re hearing the fuller, darker, earthier tone of a Guarneri and not a Stradivarius.
Ysaÿe never published a violin concerto, but substantial parts of several have been discovered, enough for two performable works to be realized and offered by Avie Records as first recordings. They feature the French violinist Philippe Graffin, accompanied by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Jean-Jacques Kantorow. A youthful E Minor concerto had all three movements completed by the composer, including one that was fully scored. Graffin’s friend and Ysaÿe enthusiast Xavier Falques finished the job quite idiomatically. The debt owed to Mendelssohn’s concerto in the same key is apparent. Of greater interest is the 23-minute, one movement Poème concertant that Ysaÿe began in 1893. The work is passionate and rhapsodic, and Graffin’s reading is riveting, especially as supported by Erika Vega’s Wagnerian orchestration. Three brief “salon pieces” close the program. Avie’s sound is very good, if lacking the last word in dynamic immediacy.