Eugène Ysaÿe [1858-1931] Six Sonatas Op.27 for solo violin [1923]

This
concert is a rare opportunity to hear all six of Ysaýe’s Sonatas
for solo violin in the hands of a master. In
the words of Carl Flesch, Ysaÿe was the
most outstanding and individual violinist I have ever heard in my
life. He
became the pioneer of twentieth-century violin playing with a
technique that was superb but not exhibitionist. He never studied
composition formally but he composed with expertise in a
post-romantic style. The six solo sonatas are each dedicated to a
different violinist, whose personality is reflected in the music.

Sonata
No.1 in G minor
for Joseph Szigeti

1.
Grave – Lento assai

2.
Fugato – Molto moderato

3.
Allegretto poco scherzoso – Amabile

4.
Finale con brio

The
idea for composing this series of sonatas came after Ysaÿe heard
Szigeti play Bach’s G minor Solo Sonata – thus the key of Ysaÿe’s
hommage.
The two violinists were led to wonder why no-one had followed in the
footsteps of Bach and Paganini; so Ysaÿe undertook to correct this
omission paving the way for future composers like Bartók and
Prokofiev, who asked the same question. This Sonata manages in its
seriousness to recall Bach without quoting him, also giving a glimpse
of the virtuosity required with the call for double-, treble- and
quadruple-stopping before closing with a ghostly coda tremolo
sul ponticello.
The innocent Bachian fugue theme is put through its paces in dramatic
multiple-stopping manner. The Scherzo sets a tender dance tune
enclosing a central section whose questioning intensity blurs the
dance character. The Finale revisits the tougher textures and the
theme of the first movement closing the Sonata in a blaze of energy.

Sonata
No.2 in A minor ‘Obsession’ for
Jacques Thibaud

1.
Obsession Prelude – Poco vivace

2.
Malinconia – Poco lento

3.
Danse des ombres Sarabande – Lento

4.
Les Furies – Allegro furioso

Obsession
opens with a direct quote from Bach’s third violin Partita. Our
surprise at its appearance is short lived as the phrase is answered
with one of Ysaÿe’s own, tearing apart the fragile optimism of the
opening bars in frustration. References to the Partita return as
shadows, populating the movement as homage to Thibaud’s obsession
with Bach, an aspect of his character revealed in his habit of
playing the third Partita at the start of every practice session.
The sense of strain that saturates this movement is perhaps a
reference to Thibaud’s long and fraught struggle to regain his
instrumental technique after being wounded in the trenches of the
First World War. Ysaÿe gives voice to the frustration of an injured
master attempting to conquer the lofty edifice of Bach with limited
technical means.

Malinconia
draws
heavily on the Dies
Irae
theme and weaves of it a profound polyphony that seems to transcend
the violin’s modest stature.
The introspected and humble nature of the melody is compounded by the
plaintive tone of the muted violin.

Dance
des Ombres
opens with a gentle plucked Sarabande,
but the lullaby effect is gradually subsumed to the Dance of the
Shades. We feel as if a menacing force pursues the violinist through
the theme and variations, from the momentary peace of the opening
bars through increasingly dense cascades of notes, until the
falteringly heroic theme of the closing bars.

In
the Furies movement, replete with ferocious attacks and schizophrenic
changes of dynamic, the portrait of the haunted violinist is
complete. After the respite of the second and third movements, the
tempestuousness of the fourth seems all the more overpowering, it’s
exploding virtuosity a sublime tribute to Thibaud’s life which was
tragically ended in a plane crash over the French Alps in 1943. If
the Sonata paints a portrait of a violinist consumed by turmoil, it
simultaneously reminds us of a unique beauty that emerges when
tribulations are redeemed through the majestic expression of an art.

Fiacha
O’Dowda

Sonata
No.3 in D minor ‘Ballade’ for
George Enescu

Every
violinist knows this Sonata. It is the shortest of the six and, of
the six dedicatees, Enescu, as well as being an outstanding virtuoso
– and not just on the violin – was the only serious composer.
Enescu’s Romanian heritage is called upon with passages that
embrace the wildness of central European folk song. There is a long
unsettling prelude to the introduction of the main theme with its
unmistakeable dotted rhythm and slashing chords that return three
times. In places the music seems to prefigure Enescu’s Impressions
from Childhood composed
twenty years later. In the final section the struggle between the
violin and the music catches fire. Ysaÿe was one of the greatest
violinists of his century and he had an unparalleled grasp of the
instrument’s possibilities. Here he has given the violin the power
of a whole orchestra.

Sonata
No.4 in E minor ‘La Capricieuse’ for
Fritz Kreisler

1.
Allemanda – Lento maestoso

2.
Sarabande – Quasi lento

3.
Finale – Presto ma non troppo

The fourth sonata is
dedicated to Fritz Kreisler, who responded in kind
with
a Recitative
and Scherzo Caprice à la Ysaÿe.
Kreisler was famous for composing pastiche Baroque works that he then
attributed to composers like Vivaldi and Pugnani. So Ysaÿe is
clearly having some fun at Kreisler’s expense by writing a
mock-Baroque suite that echoes Kreisler’s own imitations. Naturally
it is also a tribute to Kreisler’s virtuosity. The Allemanda
opens
with a
slow maestoso
introduction
that prepares the way for the work’s main motif of four rising
notes in the characteristic rhythms of an Allemande. The same four
notes in reverse make up the Sarabande,
first pizzicato
then arco
over and over. The Finale uses the same four notes again and seems to
echo Kreisler’s Pugnani pastiche with its relentless semiquavers.

Sonata No.5 in G
major for
Mathieu Crickboom

1. L’aurore –
Lento assai

2. Danse rustique –
Allegro giocoso molto moderato – Moderato amabile – Tempo 1 –
Poco più mosso

The fifth was for
Mathieu Crickboom, who was Ysaÿe’s favourite student and played
alongside him as second violin in his string quartet and thus took
part in the premieres of Debussy’s Quartet and Chausson’s Concert.
It’s an astonishing piece, seeming to come from another world, with
it’s evocation of the gradual rising of the sun from a whispered
pianissimo to the final blaze of light. As the sun slowly rises the
left-hand pizzicatos could be church bells and the dawn chorus can
also be heard. The Danse
rustique is
exactly that enclosing a wonderful free central section clearly set
outside in the country concluding with a mad folk dance.

Sonata No.6 in E
major L’Espagnole’ for
Manuel Quiroga

Manuel Quiroga was a
Spanish violinist who studied at the Paris Conservatoire. This is the
technically the hardest of the six sonatas to play demanding a
passionate virtuosity. It is in one movement in the classic ABA form,
whose centrepiece is a habanera. Indications such as dolce,
grazioso, lusingando, commodo, calando and
teneramente
show
the lyrical quality of Quiroga’s playing alongside extreme
virtuosity.