Ysaye: Six Sonatas for solo violin Op. 27

Chicago-born violinist Tai Murray was named a BBC New Generation Artist in 2009. She makes her harmonia mundi début in this dazzling reading of the six solo Sonatas which Eugène Ysaÿe penned in 1924. Since their publication these sonatas have offered a benchmark to subsequent generations of violinists.

Acclaimed as “a fabulous player, statuesque and strong, with a flawless control of line” (The Daily Telegraph), violinist Tai Murray is a rising star of her generation and is increasingly in demand for both recitals and orchestral engagements. She has performed on the stages of many of the world’s great concert halls including New York’s Carnegie Hall, and has collaborated with a wide range of conductors and instrumentalists, such as Marin Alsop, Alan Gilbert, Richard Goode, Dmitry Sitkovetsky and Mitsuko Uchida. She recently made her recital début at London’s Wigmore Hall as well as appearing at the BBC Proms and with the BBC Symphony, the BBC Scottish Symphony, the National Youth Orchestra of Venezuela amongst others. Winner of an Avery Fisher Career Grant in 2004 and a former BBC New Generation Artist (2008-2010), Ms. Murray is a native of Chicago. She performs on a Giovanni Tononi instrument, c. 1690. Upcoming chamber appearances include the West Cork Festival in Bantry, Ireland, and the Mozartiade in Augsburg, Germany.

Born in 1858, the Belgian Eugène Ysaÿe was one of the great violinists of his generation, a soloist and conductor who travelled throughout Europe giving concerts and who was regularly called upon by some of the most famous composers of his time to perform their works – such names include César Franck and Claude Debussy.

Aside from his busy concert schedule, Ysaÿe also found success as a composer, thus following the tradition of compatriot virtuosos Hubert Léonard, C.‐A. de Bériot and Henry Vieuxtemps. His acquaintance with the French school of composers led his music to take on a passionate, improvisatory character, one that is clearly discernible in his Six Sonatas Op.27 for the solo violin – the subject of this engaging release.

Dedicated to the greatest violinists of his era, the works are a fascinating testament to Ysaÿe’s art, their harmonic originality and virtuosity, revealing a composer who was intent on writing for posterity and the younger generation of violinists. Prominent characteristics of 20th‐century music, such as whole tone scales and quarter tones, abound, and yet Ysaÿe was quick to warn players not to let the technical elements of a composition dominate the musical proceedings: emotional intensity must always prevail.

Hungarian‐born Kristóf Baráti is the performer on this release, recorded in the concert hall of the beautiful, recently built Kodály Centre in Pécs. As one of the most talented violinists of his generation, Baráti has appeared with many of the world’s major orchestras and collaborated alongside esteemed conductors such as Kurt Masur and Iván Fischer. He plays a 1703 Stradivari violin, the ‘Lady Harmsworth’, kindly loaned by the Stradivari Society.

Wanchi Huang performs some of the greatest literature for unaccompanied violin with great sensitivity and depth.

Ysaÿe’s celebrated Six Sonatas for Solo Violin stand at the forefront of his compositions. His musical language embodies uncompromising virtuosity. The violinist Richard Pieta is the leader of the Orchestre Royal de Wallonie. This recording of the Divertimento Op. 24 is a world premiere.

Winning first prize at the famous International Violin Competition in Indianapolis in 1998 was a decisive breakthrough for Judith Ingolfsson. This marked the beginning of her impressive international concert career. Since then she has gained a great reputation as an artist.

Ingolf Turban commands a broad repertoire of works, some of which have rarely been performed on stage.

His virtuosic skill for Niccolò Paganini’s works have gained critical acclaim, especially his March 2006 performance with the New York Philharmonic and his complete recording of the six violin concertos and in the TV documentary “Paganinis Geheimnis”.

In 2005 he founded the Chamber Orchestra “I Virtuosi di Paganini” and in 2007, he was appointed Artistic Director for the summer festival “Holzhauser Musiktage” near Starnberg, Germany.

It was Eugène Ysaÿe (1858-1931), an outstanding virtuoso, and one of the greatest violinists of the late 19th and early 20th Centuries, who showed that composing for unaccompanied violin had not come to a halt. In successfully reviving the genre his Six Sonatas for Unaccompanied Violin opened the way to the later sonatas by Bartók and Prokofiev, those by Hindemith and the preludes and fugues by Reger. Ysaÿe's sonatas also set a new standard by which to judge a violinist's technical proewss. On this recording, Swiss born Rachel Kolly d’Alba, plays the ex-Smith Stradivarius violin. This violin, made in 1727, is in a superb state of preservation. It has a noble, balanced sound, with a particular warmth to the high notes and an attractive, earthy sonority on the lower strings offering a wealth of expressive possibilities.

Rachel Kolly d'Alba was born 1981 in Lausanne (Switzerland) and had her first lessons on the violin and piano when she was five years old. She débuted as a violin soloist at the age of twelve and is now considered one of the most talented Swiss violinists, performing in numerous international venues and winning many international competitions.