Ysaÿe: 6 Sonatas for Solo Violin

Violinist Dmitry Smirnov centers Eugène Ysaÿe's six sonatas for solo violin, Op. 27, in a program that connects the works to the musicians to whom they are dedicated. Ysaÿe composed the six sonatas in 1923 for prominent violinists of his time, incorporating their distinct personalities and playing styles into the music.

Smirnov combines the sonatas with rarely performed works by Manuel Quiroga, René Chansarel, Mathieu Crickboom, Béla Bartók in an arrangement by József Szigeti, Leopold Godowsky, and George Enescu. This creates a musical portrait of the artistic environment from which Ysaÿe's sonatas emerged. Many of these supplementary works are presented here as premiere recordings.

Dmitry Smirnov is accompanied in the works for violin and piano by Marco Scilironi; Benedek Horváth joins for George Enescu's "Pastorale, Menuet triste et Nocturne" for violin and piano four-hands.