Credits:

Hilary Hahn

Description:

Three-time Grammy Award-winning American violinist Hilary Hahn's latest album features the six unaccompanied violin sonatas of Eugène Ysaÿe (1858-1931). Hilary was a student of the composer's last pupil, and the year 2023 also marks the 100th anniversary of the first sketches of these pieces (June & July 1923). Eugène Ysaÿe is internationally regarded as one of the greatest violinists of all time, but he is also one of the greatest composers of all time. Bach's solo and accompanied violin works. And with the orchestra he played Bach concertos. For Ysaÿe, Ernst Chausson wrote the "Poème" and César Franck the violin sonata. And it was the Ysaye String Quartet, which Ysaye founded in 1886, that premiered Claude Debussy's ingenious Quartet in G minor.Through his own performances and recordings, he promoted the artistic lineage he learned from the great Belgian violinist, teacher, and composer Henri Wuertin and Polish virtuoso Henryk Wieniawski. The six unaccompanied sonatas, considered among Ysaÿe's most ambitious works, were written in 1923-24, and each is dedicated to a younger generation of performers from a different background. No. 1 is by Joseph Szigeti (Hungary), No. 2 by Jacques Thibaud (France), No. 3 by Jorge Enescu (Romania), No. 4 by Fritz Kreisler (Austria), No. 5 by Mathieu Klickbohm (Belgium), and No. 6 by Manuel Quiroga (Spain). Eugène Ysaÿe, Belgium's national hero, is widely regarded as the first modern violinist. His collection of unaccompanied violin sonatas is symbolic, reflective of the times, and a beautiful celebration of the instrument. On the occasion of the work's 100th anniversary in the summer of 2023, I recorded it over nine weeks last year just before Christmas.This is truly hypnotic music, and when I went out into the open winter air in a daze after the recording session, my brain was harmonized again with the tonality that was vibrating through my bones. If there is such a thing, it is a sound bath."-Hilary Hahn*Gatefold Specifications Universal Music/IMS