The six Sonatas for solo violin of Eugène Ysaÿe are essential works in his catalog, inspired by the sonatas and partitas of J.S. Bach, and composed as a tribute to the violinists Joseph Szigeti, Jacques Thibaud, George Enescu, Fritz Kreisler, Mathieu Crickboom, and Manuel Quiroga. These pieces suggest a Janus-like combination of retrospection and the avant-garde, hearkening to the past through allusive figurations and direct quotations (e.g., references in the Sonata No. 2 to Bach's Partita No. 3 and the Dies Irae), but looking to the future in the use of extended violin techniques and novel sonorities. Alina Ibragimova's 2015 release on Hyperion is an absorbing performance, concentrated in tone and accomplished in technique, yet wonderfully ambiguous in expression, in keeping with Ysaÿe's quirky mix of playfulness and high-minded seriousness. Recorded in the concert hall of Wyastone Estate, Monmouth, in May 2014, Ibragimova has great clarity and presence, and the acoustics provide enough resonance to soften the violin's sometimes overly rosinous sound.

For her Deutsche Grammophon debut, this rising star has chosen the Beethoven, the most musically demanding of all violin concertos, as the centrepiece. Recorded live at Vienna's prestigious Musikverein María has composed her own cadenzas for the violin concerto. The album also includes works by Kreisler, Saint-Saëns, Spohr, Wieniawski and Ysaÿe, as well as the Beethoven cadenzas by the same composers.

Hyperion’s blossoming Romantic Cello Concerto series welcomes back German virtuoso Alban Gerhardt for this sixth volume. Henry Vieuxtemps and Eugène Ysaÿe are of course best known for their blistering pyrotechnics on the violin, but each of this eminent teacher-and-pupil pairing also wrote two works—little known today, alas—for cello and orchestra, and what a revelation they are. The two Vieuxtemps Concertos contain all the elements familiar from their famous violin counterparts—long-arched melodies alongside moments of outrageous virtuoso demands. The Ysaÿe works are shorter and make ideal companions.

Eugène Ysaÿe, a violin virtuoso admired by all his contemporaries, was an inheritor of what has justly been considered as the Belgian school of violin, whose ascendancy can be traced back to the beginning of the 19th century. His work as a composer, however, is much less well known today and it is this facet of his extraordinarily active life that we will explore here. He composed many different types of works; here we present his works for solo violin and orchestra, including two movements of violin concertos which are now available on record for the first time, and his chamber music.

The solo violin recital is something of a black belt for violinists, as the fact of the violin playing alone tends to overwhelm in pieces that were not necessarily intended to be played together. Violinist Carolin Widmann does well here, and it's all the more impressive that there are few extended techniques of any kind, just a bit of pizzicato in one of the Three Miniatures for solo violin of George Benjamin. One thing that has attracted buyers to this commercially successful release is the presence of unusual pieces, not only the Benjamin but also the Fantaisie concertante of George Enescu.

For her third disc, the young Korean violinist Sueye Park has explored the repertoire for solo violin, and chosen works spanning exactly 100 hundred years – from Max Reger’s Prelude and Fugue from 1909 to Penderecki’s Capriccio, composed in 2008. Framing the 20th century, the programme starts as a relay race of famous violinist-composers; Reger dedicating his piece to Kreisler, who dedicated his Recitativo and Scherzo-Caprice to Ysaÿe, who wrote his Sonata No. 6 for the Spanish virtuoso Manuel Quiroga. In this series of names, that of Richard Strauss may come as a surprise, but his little-known Daphne-Etüde from 1945 is also dedicated to a violinist – his young grandson.

Shani Diluka releases a great project dedicated to Marcel Proust and composers he loved, to celebrate the 150-year anniversary of his birth in 2021 and the 100-year anniversary of his death in 2022. It features Reynaldo Hahn's rarely played Piano Concerto and works by Fauré, Gluck, Massenet, R. Strauss, and Debussy. The album is recorded with the Orchestre de Chambre de Paris conducted by Hervé Niquet. The Proust album features Pierre Fouchenneret (violin), Natalie Dessay (soprano), and Guillaume Gallienne (narrator, from the Comédie Francaise).

Super rare David Oistrakh Recording with Vladimir Yampolsky ‎at the Piano. These “Encores” are a vibrant collection of classics and crowd pleasers full of spine-tingling grandeur guaranteed to enrapture.

This album of popular short pieces provides a memento of the first French lockdown in 2020: Renaud Capuçon and pianist Guillaume Bellom performed on social media each day, raising the spirits of their fans. Ideal for streaming, the collection includes music by Enrico Morricone, Charlie Chaplin, Carlos Gardel, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov and Schumann.

Multi award-winning violinist James Ehnes recorded this album during lockdown at his home. Recording commenced in the early hours of the morning when all was quiet in the house. The solo violin, recorded in the small hours during these troubled times, makes for a powerful and intimate listening experience. Ysaÿe’s six sonatas for solo violin are, together with JS Bach’s Sonatas & Partitas, the most important extended works for the solo violin. Ysaÿe composed each one of them with a particular violinist in mind, capturing their personality and characteristics of their playing.

Kerson Leong recently participated in the award-winning Tribute to Ysaÿe (FUG758). Here is his first solo recital for Alpha. The young Canadian violinist’s career began at the age of thirteen when he won the First Prize of the Junior division of the Menuhin Competition in Oslo in 2010. In 2018 he was named artist-in-residence with the Orchestre Métropolitain de Montréal, conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin. An associate musician at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel, under the mentorship of Augustin Dumay, he has already performed at such venues as Carnegie Hall, the Verbier Festival and Wigmore Hall.