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Ysae
Six Sonatas Op 27
Rve denfant
Pome lgiaque
PHILIPPE
GRAFFIN
PASCAL
DEVOYON
In Brussels Ysae was appointed Professor at the Conservatiore and, with Le groupe des vingts, which organized concerts
during art exhibitions, he premiered numerous French works. It
was not long before he created his own concert society bearing
his name and thus acquired some experience as a conductor.
During the First World War he was forced into exile in London,
where he gave numerous concerts for the allied forces. He was
offered the Directorship of the New York Philharmonic, which he
refused, but he later accepted the equivalent post in Cincinatti,
a position he held from 1918 to 1922. French music was to
be highly represented during his stay. He then went back to
Belgium where his sons helped him to rebuild the Socit des
Concerts Ysae. He continued to teach and compose, even
writing an opera in the Walloon dialectPier ly Houyeu (Peter
the coal miner). After hearing it on the radio on his deathbed,
Ysae died in Brussels in 1931.
With the Pome lgiaque, Op 12, written in 18923, Ysae
moved away from the pieces he wrote merely for virtuosic purposes in his youth. The only legacy from the virtuoso practice of
the past is the scordatura: the G string is here tuned to an F,
giving a dark colour, the violin sounding sometimes like a viola.
First written for violin and piano, Ysae later orchestrated the
piece. The work is dedicated to Gabriel Faur, from whom he
had already commissioned a piano quintet (Op 89, which the
composer was to take a further ten years to finish). However, it
was upon Ernest Chausson that the Pome lgiaque was to
have a great influence, serving as the example for the famous
Pome which he would write three years later. Ysae the
interpreter participated here fully in the creative process. The
similarities between the two works are striking: the general
atmosphere, the Wagnerism, the shape, the sublime trills at the
end Ysae helped in writing the violin part, in particular the
cadenza of the work which Chausson eventually called mon
ton pome (myyour pome).
At about the same time, during a particularly long tour, Ysae
wrote his Rve denfant (A childs dream), Op 14, which he
dedicated to his youngest son Antoine. It is a lullaby close in
spirit to Faurs Berceuse, Op 16, and its short length allowed its
composer, at the beginning of the recording era, to leave with us
a particularly touching and inimitable performance.
The Six Sonatas for solo violin, Op 27 constitute the
violinistic testament of Ysae. Each of the sonatas is amicably
dedicated to a violinist of the younger generation. They were
composed with the personality of each dedicatee in mind, but
maintain an overall unity of style. Ysae sketched them in
twenty-four hours following a recital by Joseph Szigeti, to whom
the first sonata is dedicated. Ysae was impressed by the way
Szigeti played Bach, and Szigeti saw in the Op 27 an attempt,
probably subconscious, from Ysae to interpret this music.
Indeed, I believe that these sonatas are impregnated with
Ysaes own interpretation of Bachs sonatas as much as with
the masterworks themselves.
The first sonata adopts the Bach sonata form: four
movements with a fugue, a form that Bartk, a close friend of
Szigeti, would take on later in his sonata for solo violin. Based
on the Gregorian Dies irae, the second sonata is dedicated to
Jacques Thibaud, who was his student and protg. The two
first movements were inspired by Bachs third partita in E major
and one could link this sonata with the principle of collages
that the cubist painters started using some fifteen years earlier.
The third sonata (titled Ballade, a reference to Chopin) is
inspired by the characterfree and profoundly Romanianof
its dedicatee, George Enescu. Ysae had a special admiration
for Enescu both as a composer and violinist. Josef Gingold, while
studying with Ysae in Brussels, premiered the work during a
dinner in honour of Queen Elisabeth of Belgium. The young
violinist, while warming up in a side room, realized that the
beginning of the sonata had slipped his mind, discovering with
a fright that he had left the manuscript at home. He resigned
himself to disturbing Ysae (whose foot had been amputated
due to gout and could only leave the table with difficulty). He
Raff, Ropartz, la liste est longue encore : toutes ces uvres lui
sont ddies.
Bruxelles, avec Le groupe des vingts qui organisait des
concerts dans le cadre de salons de peinture, il cre de nombreuses uvres franaises, et devient professeur au conservatoire. Bientt il cre sa propre socit de concerts qui porte
son nom et acquirt de lexprience comme chef dorchestre.
Pendant la premire guerre mondiale il doit sexiler Londres o
il donne un grand nombre de concerts au profit des Allis. On
lui propose la direction de lOrchestre de New York ; il refuse,
mais accepte plus tard celle de lorchestre de Cincinatti, poste
quil occupe de 1918 1922. La musique franaise y sera
ardemment represente. Il revient alors en Belgique o ses fils
laident reprendre la Socit des Concerts Ysae. Il continue
denseigner, compose mme un opra en dialecte wallon (Pier ly
Houyeu) et meurt Bruxelles en 1931 aprs lavoir entendu la
radio sur son lit de mort.
Avec le Pome lgiaque, op. 12, crit en 18923, Ysae
seloigne des simples pices virtuoses de violoniste de sa
jeunesse. Seul hritage des compositions virtuoses reste la
scordatura o la corde de sol est ici accorde fa, ce qui donne
une couleur sombre, le violon sonnant parfois comme un alto.
Dabord crite pour violon et piano, il lorchestrera plus tard ;
luvre est dedie Gabriel Faur, qui il a dj command un
quintette avec piano, op. 89, que le compositeur mettra encore
une dizaine dannes terminer. Cest cependant sur Ernest
Chausson que ce Pome lgiaque aura une grande influence,
lui servant dexemple pour son clbre Pome quil crira trois
ans plus tard. Linterprte Ysae participe ici pleinement au processus cratif, les similitudes sont frappantes entre les deux
uvres : latmosphre gnrale, son wagnrisme, sa forme, les
trilles paradisiaque la fin Ysae aidera crire la partie
de violon, la cadence en particulier, du Pome de Chausson que
celui-ci finira par appeler monton pome .
peu prs la mme poque, pendant une longue tourne,
Ysae crit son Rve denfant, op. 14, quil ddie son fils
cadet Antoine. Cest une berceuse, proche de celle de Faur
den Tisch. Als Gingold kurz danach auf der Bhne stand fiel ihm
auf einmal der Anfang wieder ein und er konnte sein Lachen
nicht unterdrcken whrend er spielte. Das Werk sollte einen
grossen Erfolg haben und ist heute eines der wichtigsten Stcke
des Repertoire fr Geige allein. Am Anfang des Stckes kann
man auch den Einfluss von Debussys La mer erkennen.
Die vierte Sonate ist seinem Freund Fritz Kreisler gewidmet.
Die Sarabande ist sehr zrtlich, ganz um vier Noten ostinato
herum aufgebaut, und das Finale ist charakteristisch fr
Kreislers Musik und seine kleinen Stcke wie sein Tambourin
chinois. Kreisler seinerseits widmet ihm als Dank sein Recitatif
et scherzo caprice fr Geige allein das er la Ysae komponierte.
Die fnfte Sonate ist seinem Schler Mathieu Crickboom
gewidmet, der zweite Geige in seinem Quartett war und dadurch
als erster das Quartett von Debussy und das Konzert von
Chausson ausfhrte. Der erste Satz hat eine grosse dichterische
Ausstrahlung und beinhaltet viele autobiographische Elemente.
Eine Erinnerung an fleissige Ferienzeiten, wo die Geigenspieler
sehr frh aufstehen um nicht die Hitze des Sommers ertragen zu
mssen, der Tagesanbruch ist hier auch musikalisch, die
morgendlichen bungen, ausgehaltene Noten (sehr lange, endlose Noten, bungen zur Kontrolle des Bogens fr die Ysae
steht), dann das Anstimmen, das Nachprfen der leeren Saiten
durch Zupfen, dann die Arpeggio, und der Sonnenaufgang.
Danach ein Piknik und ein rustikaler Tanz, eine Art wallonische
Farandole.
Die letzte Sonate wurde fr Manuel Quiroga geschrieben, ein
spanischer Virtuose deren Karriere sehr pltzlich durch einen
Unfall beendet wurde. Das Werk erinnert an die Stcke von
Sarasate; dieses spanische Capricio beendet glanzvoll diesen
Zyklus, wie eine letzte Herausforderung.
Ich widme diese Aufnahme dem Andenken meiner Lehrer
Josef Gingold und Philipp Hirschhorn, beide vor kurzem verstorben, und die mir so viel vermittelt haben.
PHILIPPE GRAFFIN 1997
bersetzung CANAN TOLLU
CDH55226
Eugne Ysae
Six Sonatas for solo violin
Sonata No 1 in G minor
1
2
3
4
Op 27
................................
[6157]
..................................................
[1522]
[423]
[410]
[406]
[232]
Sonata No 2 in A minor
5
6
7
8
(18581931)
..................................................
.......................................
[1220]
[230]
[235]
[411]
[302]
[636]
[845]
[355]
[120]
[328]
[659]
Allegro giusto non troppo vivo Allegretto poco scherzando Allegro Tempo I
HELIOS
CDH55226
(18581931)
Op 27
1 Sonata No 1 in G minor
[15'22]
5 Sonata No 2 in A minor
[12'20]
[6'36]
[11'18]
bo Sonata No 5 in G major
[8'45]
br Sonata No 6 in E major
[6'59]
A HYPERION RECORDING
DDD
[3'46]
[12'40]
MADE IN ENGLAND
HELIOS
CDH55226
Eugne Ysae
CDH55226
Duration 78'30
Even the most demanding of Ysaes flights of fancy sound beautiful, with the accurate
tuning complemented by fine tone, thrillingly precise fingerwork, plus excellent recording
(Gramophone) Graffins unfailing intonation places this disc at the top of the available
versions (The Strad) Obviously and enthusiastically recommended (Fanfare, USA)