Six Sonatas for solo violin Op. 27

Eugène Ysaÿe (1858-1931) is often described as a violinist with a unique technical control and, simultaneously, an extraordinary feeling for sensitivity and intensity of expression. The gramophone recordings he made in 1912 confirm the accuracy of this description. Ysaÿe's contemporaries certainly considered him one of the greatest violinists of his time. Composers such as Ernest Chausson, Gabriel Fauré, César Franck and Guillaume Lekeu dedicated works to him. Among Ysaÿe's own compositions, the six sonatas for solo violin are among his best-known works.

Ysaÿe was born on 16 July 1858 in Liège, Belgium. He received his first violin lessons from his father and continued his studies with famous violinists of the era, including Lambert Massart, Henryk Wieniawski and Henry Vieuxtemps. Ysaÿe gained widespread fame after the pianist Anton Rubinstein heard him play and invited him to tour Russia; in 1883 he moved to Paris, where he gave many performances with the pianist Raoul Pugno.

In 1886 Ysaÿe returned to Belgium, where he became violin professor at the Brussels Conservatoire and established the Ysaÿe Quartet. Claude Debussy, Vincent d'Indy and Camille Saint-Saëns composed string quartets for the group. In 1887, Franck presented his famous Sonata in A major for violin and piano to Ysaÿe as a wedding gift.

The first time Ysaÿe set foot on American soil was in 1894, when he gave a performance of Beethoven's Violin Concerto with the New York Philharmonic. It was to prove a sensational debut, and Ysaÿe would return to perform in the United States on many occasions. His popularity led to an invitation to become music director of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, a position he held between 1918 and 1922.

Ysaÿe was highly respected by colleagues and students alike. His most renowned students included Ernest Bloch, Mathieu Crickboom, Alfred Dubois, Josef Gingold, Louis Persinger and William Primrose. In addition to his fame as a violinist, composer, conductor and teacher, Ysaÿe received recognition from Queen Elisabeth of Belgium, who in 1937 founded the Eugène Ysaÿe Competition in his honour. In 1951 the name was changed to the Queen Elisabeth Competition, but as Boris Schwarz states in his book Great Masters of the Violin: 'Among connoisseurs it will always remain the Prix Ysaÿe, honoring the memory of a truly great master'.