Hilary Hahn: Eugène Ysaÿe: Six Sonatas for Violin Solo, Op. 27
Deutsche Grammophon

Among other things, Hilary Hahn's recording of Eugène Ysaÿe's Six Sonatas for Violin Solo, op. 27 proves the violinist's playing is as riveting when heard alone as when accompanied by an orchestra. That she would have such a powerful connection to Ysaÿe (1858-1931), the legendary Belgian musician and composer who wrote this cycle in June 1923, makes sense: she was a student to Jascha Brodsky, who was taught by Ysaÿe. During his performing prime, he was celebrated for his virtuosic command and established technical and artistic standards for the instrument that still stand, and much the same could be said of Hahn, a thrice-honoured Grammy winner and one of today's premiere violinists.

Ysaÿe was motivated to produce the work when during the last part of his life he shifted his focus from performing to composing and decided to write the sonatas for outstanding young violinists, including Szigeti, Georges Enescu, and Fritz Kreisler. The material Ysaÿe created poses a towering challenge to the violinist willing to take them on. Adding to their appeal for the listener, the six don't adhere to the same structural form, with some in four movements, others two and three, and two in single movements.

Just as he was inspired by J. S. Bach in the creation of the sonatas (he apparently began writing them after hearing Hungarian master Joseph Szigeti perform Bach's partitas and sonatas for solo violin), so in turn has Hahn been inspired by the example of her Belgian precursor. By her own admission, when she played his sonatas two decades ago, they felt alien; now they've become natural, as if she's “grown into them.” Her desire to record the work arose when she realized its centenary was imminent and so hunkered down, reserved days in her packed schedule for the recording sessions, and entered a Boston studio during the final two months of 2022 to enable the finished product to appear in mid-2023. Her playing is a thrill to behold, with each moment teeming with excitement and every gesture executed with conviction. Her technical command is amazing, but it's the passion and energy with which she delivers these pieces that distinguish them even more.

The double stops coursing through the opening movement of the Sonata No. 1 in G minor alone argue on Hahn's behalf when she delivers them with such seeming effortlessness. The material's modern character establishes itself early on in its chromatic touches and flirtations with dissonance, and some of the passages, including a crepuscular hush that precedes a particularly intense emotional outpouring and subsequent tremolo playing, could have come from the pen of Bartók. The layering of patterns in the second movement, each one voiced with clarity and precision, is as impressively handled; contrasting markedly in tone, the “Allegretto poco scherzoso” exudes sweetness and charm, though there are moments of drama and tension too. Composed for French virtuoso Jacques Thibaud, the Sonata No. 2 in A minor begins with a Bach quotation, the gesture a reference perhaps to the material with which Thibaud warmed up, before venturing into other areas. Pitched in moments at a near-whisper, the “Malinconia” exudes a poignant ache; the “Danse des ombres” third movement, on the other hand, is a sarabande that follows a pizzicato intro with stirring rustic-folk episodes and a drone-inflected section.

Illustrations of Hahn's artistry are abundant (see the fury with which she delivers the second sonata's closing movement, her handling of the fourth sonata's “Finale,” or the stunning climax to the fifth's second movement), but one particularly vivid example is her rendition of the Sonata No. 3 in D minor “Ballade,” created for the Romanian-born Enescu. A single movement piece lasting seven minutes, the rapturous material is executed with stunning virtuosity, Hahn's high-wire performance so intense and visceral one can easily imagine the ecstatic roar of the concert audience that would follow were the recording live.

Composed for Kreisler, the three-movement Sonata No. 4 in E minor again references Bach (the E major Partita) as it advances from its driving opening into a gentler middle section marked by lyricism and yearning. That delicate character carries over into the central sarabande in following a pizzicato intro with expressive romantic gestures, each delivered with grace and fluidity. Ysaÿe composed the two-part Sonata No. 5 in G major and single-movement Sonata No. 6 in E major for Belgian violinist Mathieu Crickboom and Spanish violinist Manuel Quiroga, respectively. Structurally speaking, the fifth surprises in seeming more improvisatory, texturally focused, and atmospheric than the four preceding it, interest also generated by its arresting glissando effects and blend of plucked and bowed figures. Striking too, is the concluding movement, which infuses its high-velocity gestures, runs, and trills with an elegiac, almost sentimental tone. In keeping with Quiroga's nationality, the sixth sonata possesses a conspicuous Spanish flavour.

October 2023