"Autobiography in musical form" is how the Six Sonatas Op. 27 of Eugène Ysaÿe (1858-1931), a Belgian violinist and composer, the most respected virtuoso of his time, who in the sonatas from opus 27 not only wrote down those musical thoughts and technical problems that intrigued him, but also documented the best of the violinist's art of the beginning of the 20th century. century.

Born in Liège, Ysaÿe received the most important knowledge about the instrument from his father, and soon breaking into the ranks of the best young violinists, he studied with violin virtuosos Henryk Wieniawski and Henri Vieuxtemps. He develops a distinctive technique that implies an elegant, full tone that is obtained with a long stroke of the bow, a precise technique of the left hand, and a string technique of moving the entire forearm while the wrist and the upper part of the arm are still.

Through his life and work, bridging the great musical eras, from romanticism to the avant-garde of the first decades of the 20th century, Ysaÿe was in contact with the greats of romanticism, such as Joseph Joachim, Franz Liszt, Clara Schumann, Anton Rubinstein, as well as the French romanticists and modernists, who dedicated some of their works to him: César Franck, Camille Saint-Saëns, Ernest Chausson and Claude Debussy, whose music also influenced his own creativity. Although he was modest about his own compositions, which he very rarely included in his recitals, most of them became a standard and unavoidable part of the violinist's repertoire.

In his sonatas from opus 27, Ysaÿe wanted to present the evolution of violinist technique and refer to the modernity and future of violinist art, drawing inspiration from and dedicating works to various contemporary virtuosos. To this day, these sonatas represent one of the greatest technical challenges in the violin repertoire. However, Ysaÿ's goal was "emotion, poetry, heart".

He was inspired after listening to Joseph Szigeti's performance of Bach's Sonata for solo violin in G minor (BWV 1001). He sketched the ideas for all six sonatas in just one day, during July 1923, completing them during the following year. He dedicates the first sonata in G minor to Joseph Szigeti, a great Hungarian virtuoso, a longtime professor in Geneva, who, among other things, premiered Prokofiev's First Violin Concerto. The sonata is in the same tonality as Bach's, and features that characterize the entire collection already appear in it: a lot of two-times, three-times and four-times, in which a certain tone is often particularly emphasized. Bach-like passages sometimes appear, especially in intriguing chromatic passages. The opening movement ends with an unusual tremolo sul ponticello and a final minor third. And the following items bring distant references to Bach; the tender Fugate is followed by a scherzo third movement in B-flat major, while the Finale gigue is full of contrasts and a sumptuous, festive mood. The second sonata in A minor was written for Jacques Thibaud, one of the greatest French violinists, also Ysaÿ's good friend. The first movement, Obsession, refers to Thibaud's playing of the prelude from Bach's Partita in E major (BWV 1006). The entire Malinconia movement is played con sordino, and the Danse des ombres includes the motif of the Dies irae sequence, followed by six variations. Les furies was supposed to provoke Thibaud, known for his sweet and elegant tone and his avoidance of any harshness. The third sonata in D minor is dedicated to the famous Romanian violinist and composer George Enescu, who drew inspiration from Romanian folklore and also superbly interpreted Bach and contemporary composers. The combination of traditional passages and wild folklore rhythms and melodies is revealed in this one-movement sonata, subtitled Ballade. He dedicates the fourth sonata in E minor to the Austrian virtuoso Fritz Kreisler, for whom Elgar composed his Violin Concerto, and who, in addition to the standard and contemporary repertoire, also performed his own compositions, virtuosic miniatures modeled after Baroque composers. This is why Ysaÿe composed for him an imitation of the Baroque in three movements - Allemanda, Sarabande and Finale. He dedicates the fifth sonata in G major to his favorite student, Mathieu Crickboom, who plays with Ysaÿe in his quartet and later teaches violin in Liège. Both items have a rustic mood, full of cheerfulness and dance playfulness. The sixth sonata in E major was written for Manuel Quiroga, a Spanish violinist who reminded Ysaÿe of Sarasate and his sweet, clear tone and impeccable technique. Spanish elements of tango and habanera are heard in the only movement of the sonata, filled with diverse technical requirements that require great bravura performance.

Zrinka Matić

***

Roman Simović's brilliant virtuosity and innate musicality, fueled by his limitless imagination, took him to all continents, where he performed on many of the world's leading stages including Carnegie Hall, the Great Hall of the Tchaikovsky Conservatory, the Concert Hall of the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg, the Grand Opera in Tel Aviv, The Victoria Hall in Geneva, the Rudolfinum in Prague, the Barbican Center Hall in London, the Arts Center in Seoul, the Rachmaninoff Hall in Moscow, to name just a few.

Roman Simović has won awards at numerous international competitions, including: Premio Rodolfo Lipizer (Italy, first prize winner and winner of 12 audience awards), the Tibor Varga Sion Valais International Violin Competition (Switzerland), the Yampolsky International Competition (Russia) and the Henryk Wieniawski International Violin Competition (Poland), which ranks him among the most outstanding violinists of his generation.

As a soloist, Roman performed with the world's leading orchestras, including the London Symphony Orchestra, Mariinsky Theater Symphony Orchestra, Teatro Regio Torino Orchestra, Nova Scotia Symphony Orchestra (Canada), Camerata Bern (Switzerland), Camerata Salzburg (Austria), Prague Philharmonic ... with conductors such as Valery Gergiev, Antonio Pappano, Daniel Harding, Gianandrea Noseda, Kristian Järvi, Sir Simon Rattle, Jiří Bělohlávek, Pablo Heras-Casado and many others.

A sought-after artist, Roman Simović performs at various prominent festivals such as the Verbier Festival, the White Nights Festival in St. Petersburg, Vadim Repin's Trans-Siberian Art Festival, Valery Gergiev's Easter Festival in Moscow, the Dubrovnik Summer Games, the Kotor Art Festival in Montenegro, the BEMUS festivals and NOMUS in Serbia, Sion Valais Switzerland, Bergen Norwegian Festival, Moscow Winter in Russia, Portogruaro Festival in Italy, Granada Music Festival in Spain, collaborating with renowned artists such as Leonidas Kavakos, Yuja Wang, Gautier Capuçon, Misha Maisky, Schlomo Mintz, Francois Leleux, Itamar Golan, Simon Trpčeski, Janine Jansen, Julian Rachlin, Vadim Repin, Evgeny Kissin, Antoine Tamestit, Antonio Meneses, Nikolai Lugansky...

Roman is a visiting professor of violin at the Royal Academy of Music in London and has extensive experience as a pedagogue. He held master classes in the USA, Great Britain, South Korea, Japan, Australia, Italy, Sweden, Switzerland, Serbia, Montenegro, Israel, as well as at the Verbier Festival, where he often performs as a soloist with an orchestra, chamber musician and recitalist. .

He published an extensive series of recordings, the most significant of which are four CDs on which he conducted the strings of the London Symphony Orchestra, for the LSO Live (London Symphony Orchestra) discography, as well as a CD of complete Paganini capriccios for solo violin. The publishing house LSO Live will release two new CDs by Roman Simović in 2024, which include six solo violin sonatas by Eugène Ysaÿe and Miklós Rósza and violin concertos by Béla Bartók conducted by Sir Simon Rattle and Kevin John Edusei and the London Symphony Orchestra.

Roman has been concertmaster of the London Symphony Orchestra since 2010.

Roman Simović plays the Antonio Stradivari violin from 1709, generously lent to him by Jonathan Moulds.

Eugène Ysaÿe: Six sonatas for solo violin op. 27

Sonata no. 1 in G minor

1. Grave: Lento assai

2. Fugato: Molto moderato

3. Allegretto poco scherzoso: Amabile

4. Finale con brio: Allegro fermo

Sonata no. 2 in A minor

1. Obsession Prélude: Poco vivace

2. Malinconia: Poco lento

3. Danse des Ombres Sarabande: Lento

4. Les furies: Allegro furioso

Sonata no. 3 in D minor, Ballade

1. Lento molto sostenuto – Allegro in tempo giusto e con bravura

***

Sonata no. 4 in E minor

1. Allemande: Lento maestoso

2. Sarabande: Quasi lento

3. Finale: Presto ma non troppo

Sonata no. 5 in G major

1. L'Aurore: Lento assai

2. Danse rustice: Allegro giocoso molto moderato – Moderato amabile – Tempo 1 – Poco più mosso

Sonata no. 6 in E major

1. Allegro giusto non troppo vivo