Eugène Ysaÿe
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Eugène Ysaÿe | |
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| Background information | |
| Born | July 16, 1858.svg/22px-Flag_of_Belgium_(civil).svg.png){kind=small} Liège, Belgium |
| Died | May 12, 1931 (aged 72) Liège, Belgium |
| Genre(s) | Classical |
| Occupation(s) | Composer, conductor, pedagogue, violinist |
| Instrument(s) | Violin |
| Years active | ca. 1862–1931 |
| Associated acts | Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra |
| Notable instrument(s) | |
| Viola Antonio Testore 1740 Violin Andrea Guarneri, filius Andrea 1720 Herkules Stradivarius 1734 Giuseppe Guarneri, del Gesù 1740 Ysaÿe Guadagnini 1754 |
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Eugène Ysaÿe (July 16, 1858 – May 12, 1931) was a Belgian violinist, composer and conductor. His brother was pianist and composer Théo Ysaÿe (1865–1918).
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[edit] Biography
Born in Liège, Belgium, Ysaÿe began violin lessons aged four with his father, and later studied with Joseph Massart, Henryk Wieniawski, and Henri Vieuxtemps. This places him in the Franco-Belgian school of violin playing, which dates back to the development of the modern violin bow by François Tourte.
After his graduation, Ysaÿe was the principal violin of the Benjamin Bilse beer-hall orchestra, which later developed into the Berlin Philharmonic. Many musicians of note and influence came regularly to hear this orchestra and Ysaÿe in particular, among whom figured Joseph Joachim, Franz Liszt, Clara Schumann, and Artur Rubinstein, who asked that Ysaÿe be released from his contract to accompany him on tour.
When Ysaÿe was twenty-seven years old, he was recommended as a soloist for one of the Concerts Colonne in Paris, which was the start of his great success as a concert artist. The next year, Ysaÿe received a professorship at the Brussels Conservatoire in his native Belgium. This began his career as a teacher, which was to remain one of his main occupations after leaving the Conservatoire in 1898 and into his last years. Among his more respected pupils are Josef Gingold, former concertmaster of the Cleveland Orchestra and Professor at Indiana University, the viola virtuoso William Primrose, the violin virtuoso Nathan Milstein (who primarily studied with Piotr Stolyarsky), Louis Persinger, Alberto Bachmann, Mathieu Crickboom, Jascha Brodsky, and Aldo Ferarasi.
During his tenure as professor at the Conservatoire, Ysaÿe continued to tour an ever-broadening section of the world, including all of Europe, Russia, and the United States. Despite health concerns, particularly regarding the condition of his hands, Ysaÿe was at his best when performing, and many prominent composers dedicated major works to him, including Claude Debussy, Camille Saint-Saëns, César Franck, and Ernest Chausson.
In 1886 he established the Ysaÿe Quartet, which premiered Debussy's String Quartet.
As his physical ailments grew more prohibitive, Ysaÿe turned more to teaching, conducting and an early love, composition. Among his most famous works are the six Sonatas for Solo Violin op. 27, the unaccompanied Sonata for cello, op 28, one Sonata for Two Violins, eight Poèmes for various instruments (one or two violins, violin and cello, string quartet) and orchestra (Poème élégiaque, Poème de l'Extase, Chant d'hiver, Poème nocturne, among others), pieces for string orchestra without basses (including Poème de l'Exil), two string trios, a quintet, and an opera, Peter the Miner, written near the end of his life in the Walloon dialect.
Ysaÿe had been offered the post of music director of the New York Philharmonic in 1898, but declined it due to his busy solo performance schedule. In 1917, he was elected an honorary member of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, the national fraternity for men in music, at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. In 1918, he accepted the music director's position with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, where he remained until 1922 and with which he made several recordings.
Finally, in 1931, suffering from the extreme ravages of diabetes that had necessitated the amputation of his left foot, Eugène Ysaÿe died and was interred in the Ixelles Cemetery in Brussels.
[edit] Performing career
As a performer, Ysaÿe was compelling and highly original. Pablo Casals claimed never to have heard a violinist play in tune before Ysaÿe, and Carl Flesch called him "the most outstanding and individual violinist I have ever heard in my life."
Ysaÿe was the possessor of a large and flexible tone, influenced by a considerable variety of vibrato — from no vibrato at all to very intense. He said, "Don't always vibrate, but always be vibrating". His modus operandi was, in his own words: "Nothing which wouldn't have for goal emotion, poesy, heart."
Possibly the most distinctive feature of Ysaÿe's interpretations was his masterful rubato. Ysaÿe's rubato is something apart; "Whenever he stole time from one note, he faithfully paid it back within four bars," said the conductor Sir Henry Wood, allowing his accompanist to maintain strict tempo under his free cantilena. This kind of rubato fits the description of Frédéric Chopin's rubato.
Although Ysaÿe was a great interpreter of late Romantics and early modern composers — Max Bruch, Camille Saint-Saëns, and Cesar Franck, who said he was their greatest interpreter[citation needed] — he 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.
An international violin competition in Brussels was created in his memory: in 1951, this became the violin section of the Queen Elisabeth Music Competition.
[edit] Bibliography
- Slonimsky, Nicolas (2001). Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, Centennial Edition, New York: Schirmer Books. ISBN 0028655257.
[edit] External links
- Legendary Violinists
- Eugène Ysaÿe at Allmusic
- Eugène Ysaÿe biography at the Classical Composers Database
- Eugène Ysaÿe at Find A Grave
- Eugène Ysaÿe was listed in the International Music Score Library Project
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