Music is the key

Urban activity: buses moving; keypads clicking; bikers cutting off cabs; window washers scaling up a half completed skyscraper; the distant wail of an ambulance siren, and its sudden pitch modulation as it zooms past, carrying a rush of wind and a trail of receipts, wrappers, or the rare leaf; the clang of the subway; cash registers opening, closing, opening; everyone is counting something: time, money, appointments, each other; the whistle of a traffic cop and hundreds of half-heard conversations in the street. The flurry of the city isn't something best described as "beautiful" so much as alive, unstoppable, cruel, and complex. American composer (and native New Yorker) Steve Reich has been writing the definitive city soundtrack for 40 years. From his early tape pieces "Come Out" and "It's Gonna Rain", to his now classic minimalist works-- though Reich would certainly scoff at the term-- Drumming and Music For 18 Musicians, to mor...

Valentina Lisitsa is a remarkable pianist, with consistent YouTube video views reaching over 90 million total and with almost 200,000 subscribers. Following her recent, well-received recordings of Glass, Nyman, and the Études of Chopin and Schumann, she now turns to the piano works of Scriabin. For Scriabin’s 100th anniversary in 2015 – Valentina delves into his lesser-known works and finds some beautiful gems. Across a carefully selected range of works for piano, this album showcases Scriabin’s compositions through his lifetime. Consistently a favourite composer among many legendary pianists, Scriabin has in recent years become admired as one of the early 20th century’s most innovative and influential composers. With a highly lyrical and idiosyncratic tonal language inspired by the music of Frédéric Chopin. Scriabin may be considered to be the primary figure among the Russian Symbolist composers. All the works included are recorded for Decca for the very first...

Until now, the Georgian pianist Elisso Bolkvadze has recorded primarily for the Sony Classical Infinity Digital and Cascavelle labels. On her latest release, for Audite, she makes a number of highly original interpretative choices. Her approach to the opening of Prokofiev’s 1912 Second Sonata is redolent of Scriabin – plush, full - sounding and rife with detail. The rhythmic vitality of the Scherzo becomes waylaid by explorations of colouristic ornament and the misty haze enveloping the slow movement feels more French than Russian. The moto perpetuo of the finale rattles along at a splendid clip until it too is bogged down in an expressively overgrown contrasting section. In place of Prokofiev’s brightly unambiguous colours and rhythmic élan vital , we encounter over - stuffed decor and aching expressivity. The Schubert Impromptus are prevailingly lyrical, though the rhetorical eloquence and emotional urgency of each is diminished by indecisive rhythmic underpinning. For a...

The Artemis Quartet pairs Brahms’ intense first quartet with his lighter-spirited third quartet, both works that the Artemis’ cellist, Eckart Runge, describes as “remarkable and multi-faceted”. He says that “Brahms marries a Romantic spirit with the structure and forms of Classicism. There is an almost symphonic approach in the writing, but at the same time the quartets are imbued with a sense of warmth, immediacy, friendship and love that is interwoven with a more spiritual, timeless beauty”. Ever aware of the shadow of Beethoven, Brahms was 40 years old by the time he completed the first of his three published string quartets (op 51, No 1) in 1873; he is thought to have destroyed the 20 or so quartets that he had written previously. The third quartet (op 67) followed in 1875, the year before the premiere of the composer’s Symphony No 1, and a decade after the publication of his piano quintet, which the Artemis Quartet has recorded with Leif Ove Andsnes. “Brahms wr...

Composed shortly before his death in 1998, Schnittke’s ultimate symphony – actually his very last work – is a “Ninth” in a most unusual sense: Put down with a shaky left hand by an artist who had survived four strokes and was laterally debilitated, it is an impressive triumph of spiritual energy over physical constraints. The composer’s widow Irina treated the barely-legible manuscript as a testament and was long doubtful whom to entrust with the difficult task of deciphering and reconstructing the highly expressive three movements for large orchestra (some 38 minutes of music). She finally settled on Moscow-born Alexander Raskatov, who not only provided a thorough score but, convinced that Schnittke had intended to write a fourth movement, also developed the idea to add an independent epilogue, the “Nunc Dimitis” (“Lord, let thy servant now depart into thy promis'd rest”) for mezzo soprano, vocal quartet and orchestra.  It is based on the famous text by orthodox m...

Stéphanie d'Oustrac (born 1974 in Rennes) in is a French mezzo-soprano. Before she had even won a prize a the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Lyon, William Christie offered her the leading role - Medea - in ‘Lully's Thésée’, at the Académie d'Ambronay in 1998. Her carrier leads her to the Opéra Bastille were she performs ‘Carmen, Bizet’. In 2012, Stéphanie d’Oustrac sung in ‘Roméo & Juliette, Berlioz’ at the Opéra Bastille.Her talent leads her to many great mezzo roles of baroque and classical opera. She also worked with great directors such Laurent Pelly , Robert Carsen , Vincent Vittoz , and famous conductors as Myung Wung Chung, John Eliot Gardiner and René Jacobs. raised for her sensitivity as a musician and for her talents as a virtuoso, Héloïse Gaillard soon made a name for herself as a soloist. She plays with several excellent ensembles: first oboe with Le Concert Spirituel (Hervé Niquet), first recorder with Les Talens Lyriques (Christophe Ro...

There is no shortage of recordings of Rachmaninov's Cello Sonata in G minor, Op. 19, and Chopin's Cello Sonata in G minor, Op. 65, but there aren't so many that put the two works together. Doing so reveals the degree to which Rachmaninov took Chopin as his model in his 1901 work: the big, contrapuntal opening movement with fascinating harmonic tipping points, the brisk scherzo and relatively short, songful slow movement, followed only by a more sweeping finale from Rachmaninov. Cellist Alisa Weilerstein and pianist Inon Barnatan offer something other than the rafter-ringing approach that is so often brought to Rachmaninov: the power is held in reserve for the climaxes. These two artists are not an ad hoc team, but are closely attuned to one another, and their restrained way with these works is especially effective in the Chopin: they tease out the contrapuntal details and respect the intricacy and relative intimacy of this work in a way that few other pairs do. The virtuos...

In the end, we self-perceiving, self-inventing, locked-in mirages are little miracles of self-reference. –Douglas R. Hofstadter, I Am a Strange Loop One is tempted, perhaps, to experience the fugue as a puzzle. In that puzzle are strings of numbers unraveling from a central rope, even as they spin into one. Yet when listening to Bach’s Art thereof, and especially in the Keller Quartett’s sensitive hands, we find that even our best similes are weak and arbitrary, for this music, this expression of internal power, is alive. By no means universal, it takes a different form every time to every listener. We in turn can take comfort in knowing that the final triple fugue was never finished, for into it the composer wove his signature B-A-C-H (B-flat-A-C-B) theme, as if signing off on a lifelong document. Thus is The Art of Fugue an “emancipatory work” in the estimation of Hans-Klaus Jungheinrich, who in his accompanying essay goes to great lengths to demythologize the un...

"Purist friends, please don't read the following" is the defiant opening salvo in Romanian-French violinist Sarah Nemtanu's notes for this release, and she might have added that purists should avoid listening to the album as well. The remainder of the listening public, however, should be very intrigued. Buyers coming to the album online might guess that the program is a conventional set of Eastern European and gypsy-oriented pieces that might have been played half a century ago. But sample well, focusing especially on tracks 3 and 8, so that you know what you're getting into. Nemtanu's album also attempts to add modern crossover elements to the traditional, not to say hoary, form, of the gypsy-classical concert, and she makes several unusual moves and one radical one. Some of the album, however, is played straight, and there's an unusual continuum from traditional to experimental at work. In the former category is the Violin Sonata No. 3 in A minor, Op. 2...

Anna Christiane Neumann is a freelance pianist, répétiteur and music teacher. Her musical career began at the Music School in Berlin-Köpenick. After working for several years with Manfred Schmitz, she developed a passion for piano accompaniment which is still keenly felt today. At the University of Music and Theatre “Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy” Leipzig she studied piano with Ulrich Urban and instrumental accompaniment with Hanns-Martin Schreiber. After additional studies in chamber music with Karl-Peter Kammerlander and Philipp Moll, she passed her music performance examination “with distinction” in 2005. In addition to concert appearances as a soloist, she performs as an accompanist in chamber music recitals and at international competitions. She is also an adjunct professor at the University of Music and Theatre “Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy” Leipzig. In 2011 she took part in Das Liederprojekt (The Song Project) of German broadcaster SWR2 as a piano accompanist for ...

Angela Hewitt has been much praised in her earlier recordings of Beethoven’s piano sonatas—displaying ‘exquisite taste’—and now turns her ‘uncluttered clarity of thought and inspired structural pacing’ to four more works spanning the composer’s career. As ever, Angela’s accompanying notes provide fascinating insights into both the music and her performances. As with previous instalments in Angela Hewitt’s near-complete Beethoven cycle, this fifth volume, for the most part, offers interpretations characterised by intelligent virtuosity and cultivated artistry. No detail in Op 2 No 2’s Allegro vivace transpires unnoticed. The broken octaves and rapid up beat flourishes couldn’t be clearer, although the movement’s brash undercurrents best reveal themselves when Hewitt points up the development section’s witty motivic repartee. Her elegantly unfolding Scherzo and grazioso Rondo movements (the latter contains just a hint of the ‘traditional’ swan-dive most pianists imp...

Angela Hewitt presents a fourth volume in her acclaimed series of Beethoven’s piano sonatas, which has delighted her fans worldwide. The little-known Sonata in B flat major, Op 22, the last of Beethoven’s ‘early’ sonatas, is recorded alongside Op 31 No 3 (sometimes known as ‘La chasse’, or ‘The Hunt’, because of its tumultuous Presto con fuoco finale). The album is concluded with Op 101, of which the journalist for the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung in Leipzig wrote: ‘Truly, here in his 101st composition admiration and renewed respect take hold of us, when we wander along strange, never trodden paths with the great painter of the soul’, going on to enthuse about the most beautiful colours and pictures in Beethoven’s new Piano Sonata. Hewitt’s uncluttered clarity of thought and inspired structural pacing pay even greater dividends in the glorious A major Sonata Op 101 (No 28). Hewitt captures its mood of glowing contentment to perfection, climaxing in a fugally...

For her 2015 double-CD release on Oehms Classics, organist Iveta Apkalna has selected works by Johann Sebastian Bach and Philip Glass that make an interesting, if not wholly successful, pairing. Superficially, Bach's motoric polyphony and Glass' cycling patterns share a mechanical quality that might make them seem well-matched, especially on the organ. Yet Bach's works were composed specifically for the organ, with its differentiated voicings giving clarity to his counterpoint, while the Glass transcriptions were written for ensembles with rather uniform instrumental textures, creating an altogther different effect. That said, Apkalna demonstrates a technical brilliance in the Glass pieces that is comparable in speed and precision to the original versions, but she shows a deeper affinity for Bach, and her playing in this part of the program is dynamic, energetic, and personally expressive. While one may listen to the Glass CD once to see how well his music ...

The Piano Quintet of Alfred Schnittke (1934-1998) begins where many chamber works might end: with the closing of eyes. It is behind these lids, the shadowy backdrops of which form the projection screen of our deepest mortalities, that the music remains. Even the Waltz of the second movement is a doppelgänger, its higher strings haunting the periphery like an epidemic. Such profound banalities are what make this a harrowing, if somnambulate, work. The piano’s role is very much subdued, providing regularity where there is none to be had. Rarely proclamatory, it reveals its deepest secrets when, at the end of the Andante, the sustain pedal is depressed merely for its metronomic effect in want of note value. The album takes its title from the fourth movement, a viscous, writhing creature that never shows its face. After enduring so many scars, the final Moderato tiptoes ever so gracefully around the fallen shards, gathering from each a snatch of light—just enough for a hand...

This is one of those CDs you almost feel lucky to have in existence, as it preserves a moment in time and a work that may be a game-changer for future composers wishing to coalesce Western and Indian music. Ravi Shankar, one of the world’s music legends—partly for the right reasons, and partly for the wrong reasons—composed this work in which he united his two lifelong passions, Western classical music (his early idols included Enescu, Toscanini, Heifetz, Paderewski, Casals, Kreisler, and Chaliapin) and Indian ragas. What’s significant about this work is that he waited until he was 90 years old to write it. One might think that an Eastern classical musician schooled in a different discipline would have difficulty, at 90 or any age, in fusing the two types of music, but Shankar has always been able to understand and intellectualize the differences between them. He has known for decades that the Western ear is attuned to harmony, modulation, and counterpoin...

A disciple of Vlado Perlemuter and Jean Hubeau, Michel Dalberto distinguished himself at a very early age as the great heir of French piano music, becoming a master and ardent defender of it, from recital to master class, over the course of a career spanning thirty years. Although his recordings had heretofore been devoted in particular to the Viennese Classical and German Romantic eras (to the present day, he remains the only living pianist to have recorded Schubert's complete piano works), his much-awaited return to disc will leave Michel Dalberto's mark on the French music discography. In the documentary Michel Dalberto: images…, he confided, regarding Debussy: ' I always thought I had time and that the longer I waited, the more my approach to the French repertoire would be enriched'. And it is the Aparté label that Michel Dalberto at last chose to record, in an ideal balance between heritage and transmission, a series of discs devoted to Debussy, Fa...

The magical world of sound created by Eugène Ysaÿe draws me like an irresistible magnet. In these solo sonatas, inspired by a broad palette of colours and an infinite imagination, Ysaÿe challenges the violinist to transcend technical boundaries. I have attempted, in the light of the numerous instructions in the score, to translate Ysaÿe’s abstract language into a natural and coherent story for the listener. Each sonata reflects the playing of the great violin master to whom it is dedicated. I feel blessed to have received lessons from a living violin legend: Mauricio Fuks. He tirelessly encouraged me to reach into the deepest corners of my soul in order to connect to my inner voice, and to use the timelessly beautiful sounds of the earlier masters as a source of inspiration. I therefore dedicate this album to him, with great love and gratitude. The violin I play was once played by the renowned Belgian violinist Carlo Van Neste. In friendship and appreciation, Queen Eli...

Matthias Pintscher is the Music Director of the Ensemble Intercontemporain, entering his third season in 2015/16. Beginning in 2016/17 he also takes up post as Principal Conductor of the Lucerne Festival Academy. He continues his partnerships with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra as its Artist-in-Association, and with the Danish National Symphony Orchestra as Artist-in-Residence. Equally accomplished as conductor and composer, Pintscher sees his two main spheres of activity as entirely complementary; he has created significant works for the world’s leading orchestras, and his intrinsic understanding of the score from the composer’s perspective informs his ability to communicate on the podium.  Alpha is launching a collaboration with the Ensemble Intercontemporain and its new artistic director, composer-conductor Matthias Pintscher. This new series will alternate 20th-century landmarks and new works , providing an opportunity to show to advantage the great quality of ...

“I am especially pleased to introduce to you a young singer, Marija Vidovic. In describing her voice, the words that come spontaneously to me are qualities like grace, sweetness and mellowness, and when it comes to her personality, I think of authenticity, charisma and above all elegance. All of those qualities amount to something special, something which anyone who loves music and the vocal art is always looking for but seldom finds: magic. I have often been witness to the spell she casts on her audience when performing. Allow yourself to be enchanted!” Francisco Araiza  Marija Vidovic has performed regularly in concerts and song recitals in Germany, Austria, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, Croatia, Italy, China and Mexico. Her Opera Arias CD will premiere in September 2015, with the Baden-Baden Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Francisco Araiza.

French sisters Sarah and Deborah Nemtanu are leaders of the Orchestre National de France and the Orchestre de Chambre de Paris, respectively. And they are also characterful soloists who play Bach’s three violin concertos with what sounds like intuitive freedom – just sample the flicked-in embellishments. These recordings also combine period- instruments style spareness of vibrato with moments of almost old-style fullness of orchestral sound. The couplings are fascinating, two of Bach’s Two-Part Inventions played on violin and gutteral viola, and Schnittke’s Third Concerto Grosso of 1985, a work that moves from faux Bach into pure Schnittke as if by way of musical hallucination.

Maestro Antonio Pappano insisted he wanted to record with Beatrice Rana, the 22-year-old Italian pianist championed by Martha Argerich who shot to stardom when she claimed the Silver Medal and the coveted Audience Award in the 2013 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. On that occasion, Huffington Post described the seasoned competition winner’s performance as ‘an endlessly fascinating piece of humanity that had the orchestra riveted on every note’. Warner Classics signed this young piano sensation in mid-2015; the Italian virtuoso now makes her label debut with the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia under the baton of Sir Antonio Pappano. Recorded in Rome, the formidable programme pairs two Russian masterpieces: a thrillingly fresh take on the warhorse of Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No.1 in B-flat minor – an indispensable repertoire benchmark and calling card for concert pianists all over the world – and Prokofiev’s stormy, emotionally charged Piano Concert...

For all their radical stylistic differences, Schumann and Berg were composers whose creative personas had much in common. In particular, both were steeped in literature, and both had a lifelong fascination with cryptograms and numerical symbolism of all kinds. But while Berg’s formative years were spent composing virtually nothing other than Lieder, Schumann turned seriously to song only after a decade spent writing almost exclusively music for solo piano. Not by chance, Schumann’s change of direction in 1840 coincided with his long- postponed marriage to Clara Wieck. In that one year alone, as though in rapturous greeting to his bride, he composed around 130 Lieder — a body of work that is sufficient in itself to place him as second only to Schubert in the pantheon of song composers. One of the cycles of that time, Frauenliebe und -leben, to poems by the French-born Adelbert von Chamisso, itself encapsulates the life of a married woman. “I have lived and loved”, she sings in the la...

Two pearls of pianism: Annie Fischer in a sensitive, chamber-like and exceptionally poetic reading of the Schumann Piano Concerto – one of her favourite pieces. Leon Fleisher, a few months before he was to lose the use of his right hand (recovering it only in old age), with Beethoven’s Second Piano Concerto in an inspirationally bright and crystal clear tone. The eighth disc in the series "LUCERNE FESTIVAL Historic Performances" is dedicated to two piano icons: in 1960 and 1962, with two years between them, Hungarian-born Annie Fischer and the American Leon Fleisher made their debuts at LUCERNE FESTIVAL. Released here for the first time in their entirety, these live recordings document them at the peak of their art. Sviatoslav Richter called her a "brilliant musician", accrediting her with "great breath and true depth". András Schiff acknowledged: "I have never heard more poetic playing in my life." Annie Fischer, born in Bu...

Music for solo violin is still mainly associated with Bach in the eighteenth century and Paganini in the nineteenth. Carolin Widmann, the distinguished German violinist, here provides a varied and vivid survey of such music from the twentieth century, from Ysaÿe in the 1920s to Jörg Widmann (her composer brother) at the turn of the millennium. There is nothing at all in the CD booklet about any of these pieces, though they are unlikely to be at all familiar to most collectors. I describe them below, partly because you need this information for a proper appreciation of the range of what is on offer on this disc, and partly in hope that it might pique your curiosity.  Ysaÿe’s Six sonatas for solo violin, Op. 27, were written in 1923. Each one is dedicated to one of his contemporary violinists, No. 2 to Jacques Thibaud, and No. 4 to Fritz Kreisler. If that was a shrewd way to encourage world-class performances, one hopes it worked, for they are fine works and by no means unworthy o...

Emmanuelle Swiercz started the piano at 9. Two years later she gave her first performance with an orchestra. At the age of 16 she was unanimously accepted by the jury of the National Superior Conservatory of music and dance in Paris into the classes of Michel Béroff, Denis Pascal and Marie-Françoise Bucquet. In 1999, after graduating with distinction, she took part in proficiency courses and simultaneously attended master-classes with György Sebök, György Kurtág, Dmitri Bashkirov, Leon Fleisher and Murray Perahia.  Emmanuelle was sponsored by the Foundation of the French Group Banques Populaires, by the Cziffra Foundation, by the Musical Forum of Normandy, and by the Musical Patronage of SocGen. She won the second prize at the Ricardo Viñes International Competition and the International Music Tournament in Rome, the third Prize at the Città di Camaiore International Competition; she was awarded “Prix Spécial” at the Maria-Canals International Competition. In addition, with the...

Never judge a book by its cover. Mind you, the faux tattoos on Blandine Staskiewicz’s bare shoulders proclaiming ‘Tempesta – Handel & Vivaldi’ make one of the cringeworthiest album covers I’ve seen in a long while (perhaps the lack of available skin explains why Pergolesi and Porpora aren’t mentioned). Quite apart from that, does the world really need yet another ‘Ombra mai fù’? Once past the outward impression, you hear Alexis Kossenko and his orchestra Les Ambassadeurs offering superb value as always. ‘Spesso di nubi cinto’ from Porpora’s Carlo il Calvo launches proceedings thrillingly, with imaginative orchestral phrasing allied to Staskiewicz’s impressively precise and limpidly shaped coloratura, and there’s more virtuoso volatility in ‘Torbido in volto’ from Pergolesi’s Adriano in Siria . Staskiewicz sensibly alternates these stormy arias with a judicious assortment of slow ones; there is gentler melodic sensitivity during Vivaldi’s ‘Sovvente il sole’ from the...

Audrey Vigoureux started to play the piano at the age of 8, at the Academy of Aix-en-Provence, France. She studied both in Paris and Geneva, graduating with the first piano prize with distinction in Paris and a soloist diploma with distinction in Geneva. She has also been rewarded Geneva's Adolph Neumann Prize, the Dumont Prize, and the Filipinetti Prize. Audrey had benefitted from advice from great masters including Andreas Schiff, Charles Rosen, Bella Davidovitch, Jospeh Kalinschtein, Dominique Merlet, and Jean-Claude Pennetier.  Since a very young age, she has been invited to play alone or with orchestras in Europe, Asia and the Americas. Audrey now plays with the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande and with various orchestras in France and Venezuela. She teaches piano at the Haute Ecole de Musique de Genève. In Frebruary 2014, she recorded a solo disc with music of Bach and Beethoven, under the direction of Nicolas Bartholomée, Little Tribecca/Aparté, which will be released a...

The three quartets of opus 44 are the centrepiece of Felix Mendelssohn’s mature string quartets. He wrote them in the years 1837-38, starting composition at the age of 28, when his fame in the international musical community was rapidly growing. The oratorio St. Paul had recently brought international success. He had directed the renowned Gewandhaus Orchestra in Leipzig since 1835. Now, he travelled constantly between the important musical centres of Europe – conducting, advising major cultural and educational committees, composing commissioned works to order for the major festivals and performing as a pianist, organist and chamber musician for the public and royalty of Europe. Family matters similarly came fast and furious with his wedding to Cécile Jeanrenaud, the daughter of a French Protestant clergyman, in March 1837 and the establishment of a new home in Leipzig. He began composition of the opus 44 quartets during his honeymoon in the Black Forest and completed...

ECHO Klassik award winner Olga Scheps has quickly earned her standing among the established and sought-after pianists of her generation with her individual and characteristic musicality, her captivating stage presence, her scintillating sound and her warm touch. What especially sets her apart from others is her remarkable ability to enthrall her audiences by recounting musical narratives in her interpretations. Olga Scheps was born in Moscow in 1986 and came to Germany at the age of six. She lives in Cologne and studies with Pavel Gililov at Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln. Further studies have led her to Arie Vardi and Dmitrij Bashkirov. Moreover, for nearly ten years now, she has received significant artistic impulses from Alfred Brendel. An exclusive artist of SONYClassical/RCA, Olga Scheps’ debut CD “Chopin” was released in January 2010; she received the ECHO Klassik award as “Newcomer of the Year” in October 2010. She released her second album with works by Russian compos...

This excellent collection comes with a minor caveat, since almost all of these recordings have appeared previously as part of Martha Argerich’s ‘Live at Lugano’ series. Having such a collection of such glorious recordings of Rachmaninov’s multiple-piano/multiple-pianist works together in one place may appeal even if you do have all or some of these desirable Lugano box sets lying around. However, you may want to check the contents before acquiring this set. Argerich has also recorded some of this repertoire elsewhere, for instance in a magnificent recording with Alexandre Rabinovich on Teldec, the Symphonic Dances and Second Suite in particular, but I find myself preferring the spontaneity of the live versions in this collection. Further self-competition in this work comes in the form of a Deutsche Grammophon recording in which Martha Argerich is joined by Nicolas Economou, but even with its many qualities this again lacks the excitement, drive and electric s...

Alina Ibragimova has made many fine recordings in recent years, but this solo Ysaÿe disc must count as one of her most memorable achievements. She gives full value to the sonatas’ varied expressive character, their virtuosity, and the imaginative and poetic way Ysaÿe wrote for his instrument. And she makes the music sound quite beautiful: we never feel the medium of unaccompanied violin is at all limiting; the sonatas speak to us unimpeded, without any sense of strain. Ysaÿe composed the set in 1924, when his illustrious performing career was almost over. He dedicated each of the six to a different colleague among the fraternity of violinists, and we can follow their characteristics through the set—the First Sonata for Joseph Szigeti substantial and serious, and reflecting his prowess as a Bach interpreter; the Third Sonata commemorating the free, romantic style of Enescu, the Sixth Manuel Quiroga’s Spanish heritage, and so on. Ysaÿe sought in all six works to merge...