Lyrics:

The Sonata No 4 in E minor is dedicated to Fritz Kreisler (18751962). Kreisler entered the Vienna Conservatory in 1882, then in 1885 moved to the Paris Conservatoire, gaining a unanimous Premier Prix in 1887. His most important commission was Elgars Violin Concerto which he premiered in 1910, but Elgar was as far as he ventured in the music of his time. As a composer he became famous for his short pieces in imitation of Baroque and Classical composers, to which he often appended their name rather than his own1910 was also the year of the Praeludium and Allegro, supposedly by Pugnani, as well as the Caprice viennois Kreisler owned up to.

In writing three movements called Allemanda, Sarabande and Finale, Ysaÿe was clearly having a jokeif you can do spoof Baroque, so can I. Throughout, the writing is tonal, with very little that would have discountenanced J S Bach. After a slow introduction, we hear a motif of four rising notes (E, F sharp, G, A) that undergoes various developments, ending in a fugue. The same four notes in reverse go right through the Sarabande, at first pizzicato (avec vibrations), then bowed. In the Finale the four notes are once more descending and may well be a tribute to Kreislers Pugnani Allegro. Apart from a dotted central section, the movement also echoes the Pugnani in its relentless semiquavers.

from notes by Roger Nichols © 2015

Album notes:
On 22 September 1894, Debussy wrote a letter to Eugène Ysaÿe which is notable on two counts: he addresses him as Cher Grand Ami, and in the course of the letter as tu. The only other people the composer called tu were his family and those who had studied with him in Paris and Rome. But it was Ysaÿe, with his Belgian disregard for stuffy Parisian formalities, who started it. As for Cher Grand Ami, this denoted not only affection (Ysaÿe and his quartet had premiered Debussys String Quartet the previous December) but the violinists tremendous height and bulk, against which his violin was almost invisibleexcept that before performing he would brandish it at the audience like a sword. All of which gives a totally false impression of his performance style.

The few recordings of Ysaÿes playing that have come down to us demonstrate above all a pure, sweet tone, nothing flashy or designed to impress, certainly a taste for slides that has in general disappeared since his discs of 1912, but also a charm that grabs you and makes you listen. There is a freedom too which, at the time, was thought to have liberated violin-playing from a straitjacket, but also a seriousness that distinguished Ysaÿes playing from that of Sarasate, whose leaning towards empty pyrotechnics drew sharp comment from both Ysaÿe and Jacques Thibaud. All these characteristics mark the six sonatas Ysaÿe wrote in 1923 for his violinist friends.

Born in Liège in 1858 Ysaÿe attended the conservatoire there before studying in Brussels with Vieuxtemps and Wieniawski. He was Principal Professor of Violin at the Brussels Conservatoire from 1886 to 1897, after which he enjoyed a hugely successful international career. He had begun composing at least as early as 1884, always for string instruments, but little of this music is heard nowadays, much of it remaining unpublished. The six sonatas on this album are by some way his best-known works and display most eloquently that disregard for formalities noted above, each and every movement offering some unexpected and often striking feature, whether technical or emotive.

The idea of writing this set of sonatas came after Ysaÿe had heard Joseph Szigeti give a stunning performance of Bachs G minor solo sonata (BWV1001). The two men were led to wonder why no one had followed in Bachs footstepsof course, there could be no question of equalling, let alone surpassing the German master, but music and violin technique had, after all, moved on a bit since 1720. Ysaÿe sketched out ideas for all six sonatas in twenty-four hours during July 1923 and they were published the following year.

The part played by Joseph Szigeti (18921973) in instigating the composition of this set of sonatas is recognized in his being the dedicatee of the Sonata No 1 in G minor, the same key as the Bach sonata that inspired the enterprise. Szigeti was born in Budapest, made his debut in Berlin in 1905 and was greatly influenced by Busoni. In 1924, when these sonatas were published, he was coming to the end of a teaching post in Geneva and also gave the premiere of Prokofievs first Violin Concerto. Although he eschewed showmanship, retaining the old-fashioned habit of keeping his bowing elbow close in to the body, there was no questioning his technique or musical sensitivity, as this sonata amply demonstrates.

The opening Grave sets out the parameters of the whole collection: much double-, treble- and quadruple-stopping, often with one of the constituent notes to be accented; regular bursts of pseudo-Bach, often in chromatic vein; passages that seem to be excerpted from some book of exercises; and throughout, considerable fantasy in the joining of one idea to the next. This opening movement also concludes with a passage of tremolo sul ponticelloa ghostly mirage, gently dispelled by the final minor third. In the Fugato, an innocent, Bachian subject is put through its paces, sometimes hidden in the middle of triplets, and twice loudly proclaimed in sextuple-stopping. The indications amabile and scherzoso well describe the third movement in the relative major, B flat, which even copies Baroque practice in starting with an eight-bar section repeated. More intense figuration then blurs the dancing character before the opening tune returns. The Finale is a weighty gigue that relishes extreme contrasts of texture, with the opening G minor idea returning now both at the end and in the middle.

The Sonata No 2 in A minor is dedicated to Jacques Thibaud (18801953), who entered the Paris Conservatoire in 1893 and won his Premier Prix three years later, and who was renowned for the sweetness of his tone and the elegance of his phrasing. Ysaÿe was his mentor and a close friend for some forty years. In 1905 Thibaud formed a famous piano trio with Casals and Cortot and excelled in Bach, Mozart and French chamber music. He died in a plane crash on 1 September 1953.

The first movement bears the subtitle Obsession, a reference to Thibauds regular warm-up sessions with the Preludio to Bachs E major Partita (BWV1006), hence the quotation at the start of this movement and four times subsequently. A second Ysaÿe joke follows immediately with an echoing passage marked brutalement: Ysaÿe took pleasure in gently upbraiding Thibaud for his instinctive lack of brutality here. The movement is notable for its absence of multiple stopping, its closeness to the figurations of J S Bach and the introduction of the plainsong Dies irae which continues to figure in the following movementsmaybe another private joke? Malinconia, played with a mute throughout, is cast in the mould of a sicilienne and was no doubt designed to show off Thibauds delicate tone. The Dies irae provides the material for the Danse des ombres, followed by six increasingly complex variations, and also for Les furies, clearly intended to take Thibaud out of his comfort zone, though certainly not beyond his technical capacities.

The Romanian violinist, conductor, composer and teacher George Enescu (18811955), dedicatee of the Sonata No 3 in D minor, studied violin first in Vienna, then from 1893 in Paris with Martin Marsick, while taking composition lessons from Massenet and Fauré. He won his Premier Prix for violin in 1899. Among the highlights of his multiple international career were his teaching of Yehudi Menuhin from 1927 and the first performance of Ravels second violin sonata in the same year.

Although Enescus early compositions owed much to Romanian folk music, as a violinist he espoused not only Bach but also modern composers. Ysaÿes one-movement sonata, subtitled Ballade, also balances traditional tonal passages against ones that embrace the melodic and rhythmic wildness of central European folk song. After two introductory passagesa recitative and a passage largely in sixthswe hear the main theme, built on a dotted rhythm in major thirds. Surprisingly, the work becomes not less but more concordant towards the end, where D minor rules unmistakably for the last 75 seconds or so.

The Sonata No 4 in E minor is dedicated to Fritz Kreisler (18751962). Kreisler entered the Vienna Conservatory in 1882, then in 1885 moved to the Paris Conservatoire, gaining a unanimous Premier Prix in 1887. His most important commission was Elgars Violin Concerto which he premiered in 1910, but Elgar was as far as he ventured in the music of his time. As a composer he became famous for his short pieces in imitation of Baroque and Classical composers, to which he often appended their name rather than his own1910 was also the year of the Praeludium and Allegro, supposedly by Pugnani, as well as the Caprice viennois Kreisler owned up to.

In writing three movements called Allemanda, Sarabande and Finale, Ysaÿe was clearly having a jokeif you can do spoof Baroque, so can I. Throughout, the writing is tonal, with very little that would have discountenanced J S Bach. After a slow introduction, we hear a motif of four rising notes (E, F sharp, G, A) that undergoes various developments, ending in a fugue. The same four notes in reverse go right through the Sarabande, at first pizzicato (avec vibrations), then bowed. In the Finale the four notes are once more descending and may well be a tribute to Kreislers Pugnani Allegro. Apart from a dotted central section, the movement also echoes the Pugnani in its relentless semiquavers.

The last two sonatas of the set, both in the major, are dedicated to less illustrious performers than the first four. Mathieu Crickboom (18711947), dedicatee of the Sonata No 5 in G major, was the second violinist in the Ysaÿe Quartet before forming a quartet of his own in 1897, and was often thought to be Ysaÿes favourite pupil. Chausson dedicated his String Quartet to him. Crickboom became a professor first in Liège and then in Brussels, being best known for his teaching method Technique of the violin, containing pieces by the masters as well as some of his own.

Both movements of Ysaÿes G major sonata have rustic roots, perhaps acknowledging the composers and performers shared Belgian heritage. In the first movement, dawn leads gradually to full sunlight, through the noises of waking insects and wind in the bushes. The passages of fourths in the central section may well relate to the pages on this feature in Crickbooms treatise.

In the Danse rustique, other technical figures have been said to recall the picnics to which Ysaÿe used to invite his pupils, when they would practise their violin exercises under the trees. The movement is topped and tailed by a tune in 5/4, to be played very rhythmically, between which were treated to all kinds of high jinks, and possibly even laughter.

Manuel Quiroga (18921961), to whom the Sonata No 6 in E major is dedicated, was a Spanish violinist who had been intending to study with Kreisler in Berlin, but stopped off en route in Paris where he successfully auditioned for the Conservatoire. In 1911, with Kreisler and Thibaud on the jury, he won his Premier Prix, the first Spaniard to do so since Sarasate in 1861. His playing reminded Ysaÿe of Sarasates and recordings demonstrate a sweet, clean tone and faultless technique. In 1937 he was struck by a lorry while crossing Times Square in New York and never played in public again.

Like the Sonata No 3, this one is in a single movement. Spanish featurestangos and habanerasabound but are continually subject to development or interruption by passages of considerable technical difficulty, so that we hear the influence not so much of Bach as of Paganini. Indications such as dolce, grazioso, lusingando, commodo, calando and teneramente emphasize the lyrical quality of Quirogas playing, but five fast, high octave runs, including one up to the final cadence, also give an idea of his fine technique.

Roger Nichols © 2015