Session Report: Hilary Hahn on Ysaÿe’s Solo Violin Sonatas

Joseph Szigeti, Jacques Thibaud, George Enescu, Fritz Kreisler, Mathieu Crickboom and Manuel Quiroga: six violinists who as individuals spanned the gamut of musical language – from Enescu’s Romanian folk leanings and Quiroga’s Galician inflections, to Thibaud’s French sensuousness and sparkle – and who stand collectively as the dedicatees of Ysaÿe’s Bach-inspired Six Solo Violin Sonatas op.27. In this set, dating roughly from July 1923, each sonata is lovingly fashioned to its dedicatee’s personal vernacular, with their many in-jokes including (in no.2) Thibaud’s ‘obsession’ with Bach’s Solo Partita in E major. Essentially, there’s enough ‘golden age’ violinist DNA buried in this score’s pages to keep a musico-linguistic treasure hunter going for hours…