Composed 1924; 9 minutes

“The genius of Bach frightens anyone who would like to compose in the medium of his solo partitas and sonatas,” Ysaÿe declared almost a century ago. Nevertheless, although he composed eight violin concertos, his best-known composition remains the Six Solo Violin Sonatas, Op. 27, from 1924. They were inspired by a performance of a solo Bach sonata by the young Hungarian Joseph Szigeti. The two musicians, Szigeti at the beginning of his career, Ysaÿe almost at the end of his, discussed the small

amount of substantial music in the solo violin repertoire. Ysaÿe wished to rise to the challenge of adding to it. He retreated to his seaside villa at fashionable Knokke-le-Zoute and, within 24 hours, came up with an outline of seven new sonatas, “conceived through and for the violin.” He spent the next few weeks preparing six of the works for publication, each dedicated to a leading violinist of the younger generation. Mathieu Crickboom was the dedicatee of the fifth sonata. A fellow Belgian violinist, Crickboom was second violinist of the Ysaÿe Quartet before establishing a quartet under his own name in 1897.

“The genius of Bach frightens anyone who would like to compose in the medium of his solo partitas and sonatas,” Ysaÿe declared almost a century ago.  Nevertheless, although he composed eight violin concertos, his best-known composition remains the Six Solo Violin Sonatas, Op. 27, from 1924.  They were inspired by a performance of a solo Bach sonata by the young Hungarian Joseph Szigeti.  The two musicians, Szigeti at the beginning of his career, Ysaÿe almost at the end of his, discussed the small amount of substantial music in the solo violin repertoire.  Ysaÿe wished to rise to the challenge of adding to it.  He retreated to his seaside villa at fashionable Knokke-le-Zoute and, within 24 hours, came up with an outline of seven new sonatas, “conceived through and for the violin.”  He spent the next few weeks preparing six of the works for publication, each dedicated to a leading violinist of the younger generation.  Mathieu Crickboom was the dedicatee of the fifth sonata.  A fellow Belgian violinist, Crickboom was second violinist of the Ysaÿe Quartet before establishing a quartet under his own name in 1897.