Eugène Ysaÿe - Sonatas for Solo Violin (Alina Ibragimova)

Information

Composer: Eugène Ysaÿe

• (01) Sonata No. 1 in G minor "Joseph Szigeti", Op. 27 No. 1
• (05) Sonata No. 2 in A minor "Jacques Thibaud", Op. 27 No. 2
• (09) Sonata No. 3 in D minor "Georges Enescu", Op. 27 No. 3 "Ballade"
• (10) Sonata No. 4 in E minor "Fritz Kreisler", Op. 27 No. 4
• (13) Sonata No. 5 in G major "Mathieu Crickboom", Op. 27 No. 5
• (15) Sonata No. 6 in E major "Manuel Quiroga", Op. 27 No. 6

Alina Ibragimova, violin
Date: 2015
Label: Hyperion
http://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/dc.asp?dc=D_CDA67993

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Review

THE STRAD'S RECOMMENDED RECORDING

Alina Ibragimova is one of today’s most unassuming virtuoso violinists, her approach to Ysaÿe’s sonatas offering a perfect foil to those performances seeking to thrill with a show of outgoing brilliance. That point is made abundantly clear in the introspection she brings to passages in the opening movement of the First Sonata, where the music at times becomes almost inaudible. Even later in the sonata, when the left hand is required to fly around the fingerboard, she is intent on creating passages of gorgeous filigree, and the chords in the final movement are solid rather than hacked out of the instrument as we normally hear.

Her bowing dexterity never points to the fact that passages of the Second Sonata require the frequent crossing of strings at speed, that requirement lost in her creation of lyric elegance. This world of beauty equally extends to the pizzicatos in the third movement, which are caressed rather than plucked.

When the mood of the music so requires she is never lacking in drama, and her breathless finale sections of the Third and Fourth sonatas are electrifying in their flawless articulation, while intonation throughout the disc is impeccable. It is a personal view of the work, but one I have greatly enjoyed, and the recorded sound is very forward and vivid.

-- David Denton, The Strad

More reviews:
http://www.gramophone.co.uk/review/ysa%C3%BFe-six-sonatas-for-solo-violin-0
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2015/Aug/Ysaye_sonatas_CDA67993.htm
http://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/may/28/ysaye-solo-violin-sonatas-alina-ibragimova-hyperion-cd-review
http://www.sinfinimusic.com/uk/reviews/recordings/lebrecht-album-of-the-week/eugene-ysaye-sonatas-alina-ibragimova-may-2015
http://www.allmusic.com/album/ysa%C3%BFe-sonatas-for-solo-violin-mw0002848355

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Eugène Ysaÿe (16 July 1858 – 12 May 1931) was a Belgian violinist, composer and conductor. He was regarded as "The King of the Violin", or, as Nathan Milstein put it, the "tsar". As a violinist, Ysaÿe was a great interpreter of late Romantic and early modern composers and also was admired for his Bach and Beethoven interpretations. His technique was brilliant and finely honed, and in this respect he is the first modern violinist, whose technique was without the shortcomings of some earlier artists. As a composer, his most famous work is the six Sonatas for Solo Violin and  eight Poèmes for various instruments.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eug%C3%A8ne_Ysa%C3%BFe

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Alina Ibragimova (born 28 September 1985 in Polevskoy, Russian SSR) is a Russian-British violinist. She studied under Valentina Korolkova at the Gnessin State Musical College in Moscow, then under Natasha Boyarskaya at the Yehudi Menuhin School in London. Ibragimova was a member of the BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artists scheme 2005-2007. She has been the recipient of a number of awards including the Royal Philharmonic Society Young Artist Award 2010. She performs on a c.1775 Anselmo Bellosio provided by Georg von Opel, and has recorded several albums for Hyperion label.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alina_Ibragimova
http://www.alinaibragimova.com/

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