Ysaÿe Six Sonatas For Solo Violin Op.26

What makes Ysaye’s solo sonatas so extraordinary is the richness of their harmonies, offering endless possibilities to explore a vast spectrum of contrasts in sound projection and violinistic effects each time you engage with them.

Eugène Ysaÿe was a towering figure in the history of the violin.

What makes Ysaye’s solo sonatas so extraordinary is the richness of their harmonies, offering endless possibilities to explore a vast spectrum of contrasts in sound projection and violinistic effects each time you engage with them.

This is the latest album by Keisuke Yasujima, a pianist who has been attracting attention from many music fans for his unique musical activities while practicing as a lawyer. This is the world premiere recording of a piano arrangement of Ysaye's masterpiece "Sonata for Solo Violin," one of the pinnacle of violin art. Pianist Keisuke Nijima and arranger Kohei Owaki spent a long time to unravel the work, and they are convinced that "if Ysaye could have played the piano, he would certainly have written this way.

Recorded at home during lockdown, after midnight, James Ehnes made a series of recordings of the six sonatas for solo violin by Eugène Ysaÿe , the great Belgian virtuoso violinist and composer. These sonatas are the greatest addition to the solo violin repertoire after those by J. S. Bach, and are a supreme challenge for the performer.

Eugène Ysaÿe was a towering figure in the history of the violin. He composed a number of important works, most inspirationally the cycle of Six Sonatas for Solo Violin, Op. 27 published in 1924, which rank among the greatest and most demanding. A different version of number 6 - an unfinished version - was found in the Lavergne Manuscript in 2017. Here is a world premiere recording in its entirety, as it was left by the composer.

Eugène Ysaÿe sketched out his six sonatas for solo violin in just 24 hours, after hearing a concert by the violinist Joseph Szigeti in which the latter played the G Minor Sonata BMV 1001 by Johann Sebastian Bach. The 65-year-old Ysaÿe dedicated each of his op. 27 sonatas to a different violinist – he portrayed their characters in the sonatas, but also showed whom he ideally wanted as interpreter for each work. Except for Manuel Quiroga, whose health was very poor, all of the other five virtuosos played the sonata dedicated to them.

For this release, multi-award-winning violinist Hilary Hahn turns to the Six Sonatas for Violin Solo op. 27 by Belgian composer and violinist Eugène Ysaÿe. As she explains, 'Ysaÿe's sonatas are iconic, generation-defining and a beautiful celebration of the instrument'.

Landmarks for Solo Violin: Franziska Pietsch's recent recording of the Prokofiev Violin Concertos with large-scale orchestra is followed seemingly by the opposite: works for solo violin. What appears, at first sight, to be a contrast is in fact a logical continuation of her extensive discography, even an enhancement: whilst in her previous releases, Pietsch demonstrated her expressive range and intensive approach both as a brilliant soloist and as an eloquent chamber musician, she now faces the greatest possible reduction, namely a solo recital. This limitation demands incredible presence, power and intensity, for which Franziska Pietsch is predestined. From isolation, she draws depth and grounding; "less" becomes "more"; soleness transforms into greatness.