Ysaÿe: Six Sonatas for Violin Solo (CD)

A brand new album by the three-time Grammy Award-winning violinist Hilary Hahn.

Ysaÿe wrote his six solo sonatas, which taken as a group mark one of his most ambitious compositional efforts, in 1923–24. Ysaÿe’s initial impetus for these sonatas was witnessing a performance by the young Hungarian master Joseph Szigeti (1892–1973) of Bach’s complete solo partitas and sonatas in 1923. Ysaÿe’s own solo performance career had been reduced since World War I and he was now thinking of posterity in a different way. These works embrace the past of Bach as well as contemporary compositional styles and aimed also to further what the composer clearly felt was the future of violin performance.

Each of the six sonatas is dedicated to a performer from the younger generation, helping to ensure that this music would thrive in the hands of these outstanding performers for decades to come.

TRACK LIST

EUGÈNE YSAŸE
Sonata No. 1 in G minor – à Joseph Szigeti
Sonata No. 2 in A minor – à Jacques Thibaud
Sonata No. 3 in D minor “Ballade” – à George Enescu
Sonata No. 4 in E minor – à Fritz Kreisler
Sonata No. 5 in G major – à Mathieu Crickboom
Sonata No. 6 in E major – à Manuel Quiroga

ARTISTS
Hilary Hahn, violin