For the Record, Op. 271: Philippe Graffin Records Ysaÿe Violin Concerto in E minor

February 9, 2024, 7:13 PM · Welcome to "For the Record," Violinist.com's weekly roundup of new releases of recordings by violinists, violists, cellists and other classical musicians. We hope it helps you keep track of your favorite artists, as well as find some new ones to add to your listening!

Violinist Philippe Graffin and violinist Eugene Ysaÿe (1858-1931).

Rêves
Philippe Graffin, violin
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Jean-Jacques Kantorow, conducting
Marisa Gupta, piano

This album marks the world premiere recording of the complete Violin Concerto in E minor by Belgian virtuoso violinist and composer Eugene Ysaÿe. Following the recent discovery of a first movement, further manuscripts which complete the work have come to light – one a full orchestration, others for violin and piano – which were found on opposite sides of the Atlantic. Philippe Graffin’s close collaboration with Ysaÿe aficionado Xavier Falques led to a page-by-page analysis and painstaking reconstruction of the musical puzzle pieces, resulting in this recording of the full, three-movement concerto. It also includes another violin concerto by Ysaÿe, "Poème concertant," which was also recently discovered in manuscript form and "is imbued with passion and the love Ysaÿe felt for his pupil Irma Sethe. Their love was mutual but their relationship could not endure, possibly sealing the fate of 'Poème concertant,' which lay undiscovered for over a century," according to the album notes. The album also includes Ysaÿe's Two Mazurkas de Salon, Op. 10; and Rêve d’enfant (“A child’s dream”), which he dedicated to his youngest son Antoine. A former pupil of Josef Gingold (who was a pupil of Ysaÿe), Graffin is a professor at the Paris and Brussels Conservatoires. BELOW: From Ysaÿe's Violin Concerto in E Minor - the recently-discovered first movement, Allegro appassionato non troppo vivo:

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Replies

Paul Deck

February 11, 2024 at 05:05 PM · "...imbued with passion and the love Ysaÿe felt for his pupil Irma Sethe." Well, I guess that's just historical fact. So is Ysaÿe's (second) marriage to another of his students, Jeanette Dincin, in 1922. Dincin was approximately 20 years of age at the time.

Laurie Niles

February 11, 2024 at 06:36 PM · I'll attribute all that to the album notes, Paul, but it's quite interesting. It all might be characterized rather differently today.

jean dubuisson

February 11, 2024 at 09:38 PM · sorry I really don't like his vibrato. it goes noticably under the note and it is simply disturbing.

Paul Deck

February 12, 2024 at 02:11 AM · Jean it's amazing that this "cornerstone of technique" was so commonly accepted for so long. Then people made recording and analyzed them at slow speed -- the violin equivalent of being the first to make a movie of a galloping horse.

As far as Ysaye's penchant for young students, so far, anyway, his music doesn't appear to have suffered in the manner of, say, Richard Strauss.

Richard Pairaudeau

February 12, 2024 at 12:53 PM · I liked the concerto but not so much the soloist. I think Jean's explanation probably hits the nail on the head.

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