Eugene Ysaye
Sonata for two violins in A minor op. post.

 Ernest Chausson
Concerto for violin, piano and string quartet in D major op. 21

Unimagined brilliance
The six sonatas for solo violin by Eugène Ysaÿe, the great Belgian violinist and composer at the beginning of the 20th century, stand in a tradition of solo violin literature that extends from the French and Italian Baroque masters to Johann Sebastian Bach and Niccolò Paganini. On the other hand, the sonata for two violins, written in 1915, is still largely unknown. It was first recorded on record from the manuscript in 1964 by Leonid Kogan and his wife Jelisaveta Gilels and has been performed extremely rarely since then. This is somewhat unbelievable, as it is an exorbitant masterpiece! Perhaps it is the beauty of 1915, which was completely out of time, that has allowed this sonata, which is sometimes strictly based on Bach and equally harmoniously lush, to lead an astonishingly shadowy existence despite its brilliant sound and exuberant romantic virtuosity.

A chamber music violin concerto in which the solo instrument is not accompanied by the orchestra but by a piano quintet is the Concerto op. 21 by Ernest Chausson. The fascinating work is based on the French “concerts” of the 18th century on the one hand - chamber music with esprit and without virtuoso self-promotion - and on the powerful, Wagnerian-inspired piano quintet by Chausson's teacher César Franck. First performed in Brussels in 1892, the concerto for violin, string quartet and piano owed its spontaneous success not least to the skill of the violinist Eugène Ysaÿe, for whom Ernest Chausson had written the solo part.

David Nebel
violin

Kosuke Yoshikawa
violin

Richard Polle
violin

Lydia Rinecker
viola

Hans Jakob Eschenburg
violoncello

Yuki Inagawa
Piano

Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra