In 1924, inspired by Josef Szigeti's performing one of Bach's Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin, Eugène Ysaÿe wrote his Six Sonatas for Solo Violin. In echo of Elgar's Enigma Variations, the composer dedicated each sonata to a violinist and friend. Elgar's Violin Concerto was a favorite showpiece for Ysaÿe, who was considered the greatest violinist of his age. Among his inventive and often virtuosic original material, Ysaÿe makes reference to Bach's E-major Partita for Solo Violin, such that the music must be considered part of the neoclassical, back-to-Bach movement of the 1920s and 1930s.
While much is traceable to the German Baroque, the final E-major Sonata offers a surprise: an Iberian rhapsody replete with habanera rhythms dedicated to the Spanish violinist Manuel Quiroga. Given Ravel's affection for the habanera in pieces such as Rhapsodie Espagnole, this release makes an interesting companion to the Kennedy-Harrell Duos for Violin and Cello, which sets Ravel's Sonata for Violin and Piano beside Bach and Handel. Ysaÿe 's music is thrilling, dazzling, witty, moving, and immensely attractive, and offers challenges that the modern virtuoso Leonidas Kavakos meets with beguiling musicianship on a Stradivarius made when Bach was just 13. --Gary S. Dalkin
