Eugène Ysaÿe was a Belgian

Belgium

Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...

 violin

Violin

The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....

ist, composer

Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

 and conductor

Conducting

Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance by way of visible gestures. The primary duties of the conductor are to unify performers, set the tempo, execute clear preparations and beats, and to listen critically and shape the sound of the ensemble...

 born in Liège

Liège

Liège is a major city and municipality of Belgium located in the province of Liège, of which it is the economic capital, in Wallonia, the French-speaking region of Belgium....

. He was regarded as "The King of the Violin", or, as Nathan Milstein

Nathan Milstein

Nathan Mironovich Milstein was a Russian-born American virtuoso violinist.Widely considered one of the finest violinists of the 20th century, Milstein was known for his interpretations of Bach's solo violin works and for works from the Romantic period...

 put it, the "tzar". His brother was pianist

Pianist

A pianist is a musician who plays the piano. A professional pianist can perform solo pieces, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers, solo instrumentalists, or other performers.-Choice of genres:...

 and composer Théo Ysaÿe

Théo Ysaÿe

Théophile Ysaÿe was a Belgian composer and pianist, born in Verviers, Belgium. His brother was the violinist and conductor Eugène Ysaÿe.-Biography:...

 (1865–1918), and his great-grandson is Marc Ysaÿe, drummer of rock band Machiavel.

Legend of the Ysaÿe violin

Eugène-Auguste Ysaÿe came from a background of peasants, though a large part of his family played instruments. As violinist Arnold Steinhardt

Arnold Steinhardt

Arnold Steinhardt , is an American violinist, best known as the first violinist of the Guarneri String Quartet....

 describes, a legend was passed down through the Ysaÿe family about the first violin brought to the lineage:

It was told of a boy whom some woodcutters found in the forest and brought to the village. The boy grew up to be a blacksmith. Once, at a village festival, he astonished everyone by playing the viol

Viol

The viol is any one of a family of bowed, fretted and stringed musical instruments developed in the mid-late 15th century and used primarily in the Renaissance and Baroque periods. The family is related to and descends primarily from the Renaissance vihuela, a plucked instrument that preceded the...

 beautifully. From then on the villagers took pleasure in dancing and singing to the strains of his viol. One day an illustrious stranger stopped in front of the smithy to have his horse shod. The count's servant saw the viol inside and told the young smith that he had heard a new Italian instrument played by some minstrels at the count's court. That instrument, called the violin, was much better than the viol – its tone was like the human voice and could express every feeling and passion. From that moment the young man no longer took pleasure in his viol. Day and night he was thinking of that wonderful new instrument that could express joy and sorrow and whose tones went straight to the human heart.
Then he had a dream: he saw before him a young woman of indescribable beauty, not unlike his own love, Bienthline. She came to him and kissed his brow. The young man awoke and looked at the wall his broken and neglected viol used to hang on and could barely believe his eyes: there, instead of the viol, was a new instrument of beautiful proportions. He put it against his shoulder and drew the bow over the strings, producing sounds that were truly divine. The violin sang in a heartwarming tone: it rejoiced and wept for happiness – and so did the musician. Thus, goes the legend, came the first violin to the Ardennes and to the Ysaÿe family.

Early years

Born in Liège, Belgium, Ysaÿe began violin

Violin

The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....

 lessons at age five with his father. He would later recognize his father's teaching as the foundation of everything he knew on his instrument, even though he went on to study with highly reputed masters. At seven he entered the Conservatoire at Liège studying with Désiré Heynberg 1865-1869, though soon afterwards he was asked to leave the conservatory because of lack of progress. This was because, in order to support his family, young Eugène had to play full time in two local orchestras, one conducted by his father. Eugène went on playing in these ensembles, though he studied by himself and learned the repertoire of the violin. By the time he was twelve, he was playing so well that one day he was practicing in a cellar when the legendary Henri Vieuxtemps

Henri Vieuxtemps

Henri François Joseph Vieuxtemps was a Belgian composer and violinist. He occupies an important place in the history of the violin as a prominent exponent of the Franco-Belgian violin school during the mid-19th century....

, passing in the street, was so impressed with the sound of his violin that he took an interest in the boy. He arranged for Ysaÿe to be re-admitted to the conservatory studying with Vieuxtemps's assistant, the noted Henryk Wieniawski

Henryk Wieniawski

Henryk Wieniawski was a Polish violinist and composer.-Biography:Henryk Wieniawski was born in Lublin, Congress Poland, Russian Empire. His father, Tobiasz Pietruszka, had converted to Catholicism. His talent for playing the violin was recognized early, and in 1843 he entered the Paris...

. Ysaÿe would later also study with Vieuxtemps, and both "master and disciple", as Ysaÿe would call the roles of teacher and pupil, were very fond of each other. In his last years, Vieuxtemps asked Ysaÿe to come to the countryside just to play for him.

Studying with these teachers meant that he was part of the so-called Franco-Belgian school of violin playing, which dates back to the development of the modern violin bow by François Tourte

François Tourte

François Xavier Tourte was a Frenchman who, though trained as a watchmaker, soon changed to making bows for playing classical string instruments such as the violin....

. Qualities of this "École" included elegance, a full tone with a sense of drawing a "long" bow with no jerks, precise left hand techniques, and bowing using the whole forearm while keeping both the wrist and upper arm quiet (as opposed to Joseph Joachim

Joseph Joachim

Joseph Joachim was a Hungarian violinist, conductor, composer and teacher. A close collaborator of Johannes Brahms, he is widely regarded as one of the most significant violinists of the 19th century.-Origins:...

's German school of wrist bowing and Leopold Auer

Leopold Auer

Leopold Auer was a Hungarian violinist, teacher, conductor and composer.-Early life and career:...

's Russian concept of using the whole arm.)

Early career

After his graduation from the Royal Conservatory of Liège, Ysaÿe was the principal violin of the Benjamin Bilse

Benjamin Bilse

Benjamin Bilse was a German conductor and composer.Bilse was born in Liegnitz in the Prussian Silesia Province. He obtained a rich musical education, as at the Vienna Conservatory under violinist Joseph Böhm, and played in the orchestra of Johann Strauss I...

 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

Joseph Joachim

Joseph Joachim was a Hungarian violinist, conductor, composer and teacher. A close collaborator of Johannes Brahms, he is widely regarded as one of the most significant violinists of the 19th century.-Origins:...

, Franz Liszt

Franz Liszt

Franz Liszt ; ), was a 19th-century Hungarian composer, pianist, conductor, and teacher.Liszt became renowned in Europe during the nineteenth century for his virtuosic skill as a pianist. He was said by his contemporaries to have been the most technically advanced pianist of his age...

, Clara Schumann

Clara Schumann

Clara Schumann was a German musician and composer, considered one of the most distinguished pianists of the Romantic era...

, and Anton Rubinstein

Anton Rubinstein

Anton Grigorevich Rubinstein was a Russian-Jewish pianist, composer and conductor. As a pianist he was regarded as a rival of Franz Liszt, and he ranks amongst the great keyboard virtuosos...

, 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

Concerts Colonne

The Colonne Orchestra is a French symphony orchestra, founded in 1873 by the violinist and conductor Édouard Colonne.-History:While leader of the Opéra de Paris orchestra, Édouard Colonne was engaged by the publisher Georges Hartmann to lead a series of popular concerts which he founded under the...

 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

Koninklijk Conservatorium (Brussels)

The Royal Conservatory of Brussels is a drama and music college in Brussels, Belgium. An academy for acting and the arts, it has been attended by many of the top actors and actresses in Belgium such as Josse De Pauw, Luk van Mello and Luk De Konink....

 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

Josef Gingold

Josef Gingold was a Russian-Jewish-born classical violinist and teacher, who lived most of his life in the United States...

, former concertmaster

Concertmaster

The concertmaster/mistress is the spalla or leader, of the first violin section of an orchestra. In the UK, the term commonly used is leader...

 of the Cleveland Orchestra

Cleveland Orchestra

The Cleveland Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Cleveland, Ohio. It is one of the five American orchestras informally referred to as the "Big Five". Founded in 1918, the orchestra plays most of its concerts at Severance Hall...

 and Professor at Indiana University

Indiana University

Indiana University is a multi-campus public university system in the state of Indiana, United States. Indiana University has a combined student body of more than 100,000 students, including approximately 42,000 students enrolled at the Indiana University Bloomington campus and approximately 37,000...

, the viola

Viola

The viola is a bowed string instrument. It is the middle voice of the violin family, between the violin and the cello.- Form :The viola is similar in material and construction to the violin. A full-size viola's body is between and longer than the body of a full-size violin , with an average...

 virtuoso William Primrose

William Primrose

William Primrose CBE was a Scottish violist and teacher.-Biography:Primrose was born in Glasgow and studied violin initially. In 1919 he moved to study at the then Guildhall School of Music in London. On the urging of the accompanist Ivor Newton, Primrose moved to Belgium to study under Eugène...

, the violin virtuoso Nathan Milstein

Nathan Milstein

Nathan Mironovich Milstein was a Russian-born American virtuoso violinist.Widely considered one of the finest violinists of the 20th century, Milstein was known for his interpretations of Bach's solo violin works and for works from the Romantic period...

 (who primarily studied with Pyotr Stolyarsky), Louis Persinger

Louis Persinger

Louis Persinger was an American violinist and pianist.Louis Persinger trained at the Leipzig Conservatory, before finishing with Eugène Ysaÿe in Brussels. He became leader of the Berlin Philharmonic orchestra and the Royal Opera Orchestra in Brussels. In 1915 he was appointed leader and assistant...

, Alberto Bachmann, Mathieu Crickboom

Mathieu Crickboom

Mathieu Crickboom was a Belgian violinist, who was born in Verviers and died in Brussels.Crickboom was the principal disciple of Eugène Ysaÿe, who dedicated to him his Sonata for Violin Alone No. 5...

, Jonny Heykens

Jonny Heykens

Jonny Heykens was a Dutch composer of light classical music, remembered above all for his jaunty Ständchen No.1 Opus 21....

, Charles Houdret

Charles Houdret

Charles Houdret was a Canadian conductor, cellist, radio producer, and composer. He began his career in his native country of Belgium and was highly active as a conductor throughout Europe during the 1940s. In 1952 he immigrated to Canada where he ultimately became a naturalized citizen...

, Jascha Brodsky

Jascha Brodsky

Jascha Brodsky was a Russian-American violinist and teacher.Born in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Russian Empire, he began his violin studies with his violinist father at the age of six. He later studied at the conservatory in Tbilisi, Georgia, and by 1926, was performing successfully all over the Soviet Union...

, and Aldo Ferraresi

Aldo Ferraresi

Aldo Ferraresi was a celebrated Italian violinist.Ferraresi was born Ferrara, the son of Augusto Ferraresi, an artillery marshal and mandolin player, and Marcella Jesi. At the age of five he began his studies at the Frescobaldi Institute of Music in Ferrara with Federico Barera and Umberto...

.

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

Claude Debussy

Claude-Achille Debussy was a French composer. Along with Maurice Ravel, he was one of the most prominent figures working within the field of impressionist music, though he himself intensely disliked the term when applied to his compositions...

, Camille Saint-Saëns

Camille Saint-Saëns

Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns was a French Late-Romantic composer, organist, conductor, and pianist. He is known especially for The Carnival of the Animals, Danse macabre, Samson and Delilah, Piano Concerto No. 2, Cello Concerto No. 1, Havanaise, Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso, and his Symphony...

, César Franck

César Franck

César-Auguste-Jean-Guillaume-Hubert Franck was a composer, pianist, organist, and music teacher who worked in Paris during his adult life....

, and Ernest Chausson

Ernest Chausson

Amédée-Ernest Chausson was a French romantic composer who died just as his career was beginning to flourish.-Life:Ernest Chausson was born in Paris into a prosperous bourgeois family...

. In particular, mention should be made of Franck's Violin Sonata in A

Violin Sonata (Franck)

The Sonata in A major for Violin and Piano by César Franck is one of his best known compositions, and considered one of the finest sonatas for violin and piano ever written...

, written as a wedding present for Ysaÿe and his wife in 1886, which Ysaÿe played wherever he went for the rest of his life.

In 1886 he established the Ysaÿe Quartet

Ysaÿe Quartet (1886)

The Ysaÿe Quartet was established in 1886 by Eugène Ysaÿe.Its members were:* Eugène Ysaÿe, 1st violin* Mathieu Crickboom, 2nd violin* Léon van Hout, viola* Joseph Jacob, celloThe quartet premiered Claude Debussy's String Quartet on December 29, 1893....

, which premiered Debussy's String Quartet

String Quartet (Debussy)

Claude Debussy wrote his sole String Quartet in G minor, Op. 10 in 1893.-Background:The previous year Debussy had abandoned the opera Rodrigue et Chimène...

.

Teaching and composing

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

Double bass

The double bass, also called the string bass, upright bass, standup bass or contrabass, is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra, with strings usually tuned to E1, A1, D2 and G2...

 (including Poème de l'Exil), two string trios, a quintet, and an opera

Opera

Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...

, Peter the Miner, written near the end of his life in the Walloon

Walloon language

Walloon is a Romance language which was spoken as a primary language in large portions of the Walloon Region of Belgium and some villages of Northern France until the middle of the 20th century. It belongs to the langue d'oïl language family, whose most prominent member is the French language...

 dialect.

Ysaÿe had been offered the post of music director of the New York Philharmonic

New York Philharmonic

The New York Philharmonic is a symphony orchestra based in New York City in the United States. It is one of the American orchestras commonly referred to as the "Big Five"...

 in 1898, but declined it due to his busy solo performance schedule. In 1918, he accepted the music director's position with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra

Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra

As the fifth oldest orchestra in the United States, the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra has a legacy of fine music making as reflected in its performances in historic Music Hall, recordings, and international tours...

, 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 in his house in Brussels and was interred in the Ixelles Cemetery

Ixelles Cemetery

The Ixelles Cemetery , located in Ixelles in the southern part of Brussels, is one of the major cemeteries in Belgium....

 in Brussels

Brussels

Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...

.

Performing career

As a performer, Ysaÿe was compelling and highly original. Pablo Casals

Pablo Casals

Pau Casals i Defilló , known during his professional career as Pablo Casals, was a Spanish Catalan cellist and conductor. He is generally regarded as the pre-eminent cellist of the first half of the 20th century, and one of the greatest cellists of all time...

 claimed never to have heard a violinist play in tune before Ysaÿe, and Carl Flesch

Carl Flesch

Carl Flesch was a violinist and teacher.Carl Flesch was born in Moson in Hungary in 1873. He began playing the violin at seven years of age. At 10, he was taken to Vienna, and began to study with Jakob Grün. At 17, he left for Paris, and joined the Paris Conservatoire...

 called him "the most outstanding and individual violinist I have ever heard in my life."

Ysaÿe possessed a large and flexible tone, influenced by a considerable variety of vibrato

Vibrato

Vibrato is a musical effect consisting of a regular, pulsating change of pitch. It is used to add expression to vocal and instrumental music. Vibrato is typically characterised in terms of two factors: the amount of pitch variation and the speed with which the pitch is varied .-Vibrato and...

 — from no vibrato at all to very intense. He said, "Don't always vibrate, but always be vibrating". His modus operandi

Modus operandi

Modus operandi is a Latin phrase, approximately translated as "mode of operation". The term is used to describe someone's habits or manner of working, their method of operating or functioning...

was, in his own words: "Nothing which wouldn't have for goal emotion, poetry, heart."

Possibly the most distinctive feature of Ysaÿe's interpretations was his masterful rubato. Conductor Sir Henry Wood

Henry Wood (conductor)

Sir Henry Joseph Wood, CH was an English conductor best known for his association with London's annual series of promenade concerts, known as the Proms. He conducted them for nearly half a century, introducing hundreds of new works to British audiences...

 said, "Whenever he stole time from one note, he faithfully paid it back within four bars", allowing his accompanist to maintain strict tempo under his free cantilena. Incidentally, this kind of rubato fits the description of Frédéric Chopin

Frédéric Chopin

Frédéric François Chopin was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist. He is considered one of the great masters of Romantic music and has been called "the poet of the piano"....

's rubato.

Although Ysaÿe was a great interpreter of late Romantic and early modern composers — Max Bruch

Max Bruch

Max Christian Friedrich Bruch , also known as Max Karl August Bruch, was a German Romantic composer and conductor who wrote over 200 works, including three violin concertos, the first of which has become a staple of the violin repertoire.-Life:Bruch was born in Cologne, Rhine Province, where he...

, Camille Saint-Saëns

Camille Saint-Saëns

Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns was a French Late-Romantic composer, organist, conductor, and pianist. He is known especially for The Carnival of the Animals, Danse macabre, Samson and Delilah, Piano Concerto No. 2, Cello Concerto No. 1, Havanaise, Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso, and his Symphony...

, and César Franck

César Franck

César-Auguste-Jean-Guillaume-Hubert Franck was a composer, pianist, organist, and music teacher who worked in Paris during his adult life....

, who said he was their greatest interpreter — he was admired for his Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...

 and Beethoven

Ludwig van Beethoven

Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...

 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

Queen Elisabeth Music Competition

The Queen Elisabeth Music Competition, a founding member of the World Federation of International Music Competitions has been, since its foundation, considered the world over to be one of the most prestigious and most difficult. It is devoted to violin , piano , to composition and to singing...

.

Personal life

Ysaÿe was married twice. His first marrriage, on 29 September 1886, was to Louise Bourdeau de Coutrai, with whom he had three sons. César Franck

César Franck

César-Auguste-Jean-Guillaume-Hubert Franck was a composer, pianist, organist, and music teacher who worked in Paris during his adult life....

 presented his Violin Sonata in A

Violin Sonata (Franck)

The Sonata in A major for Violin and Piano by César Franck is one of his best known compositions, and considered one of the finest sonatas for violin and piano ever written...

 to them as a gift on the morning of the wedding, and after a hurried rehearsal Ysaÿe performed the piece at the marriage celebration. The sonata had its formal concert premiere in December 1886.

After Louise's death in 1924 he married a pupil of his, Jeanette Dincin, 44 years his junior. She was a violinist who in her teens had studied with prominent teachers such as Franz Kneisel

Franz Kneisel

Franz Kneisel was an American violinist and teacher of Romanian birth.Born in Bucharest, the son of a German bandmaster, he learned to play the flute, clarinet and trumpet, as well as the violin...

, Leopold Auer

Leopold Auer

Leopold Auer was a Hungarian violinist, teacher, conductor and composer.-Early life and career:...

, and Otakar Ševčík

Otakar Ševcík

Otakar Ševčík was a Czech violinist and influential teacher. He was known as a soloist and an ensemble player, including his occasional performances with Eugène Ysaÿe.-Biography:...

. Ysaÿe met her in 1922 while conductor of the Cincinnati Orchestra. She cared for him in his ailing years. Eugene's only request of her after he died was that she carry on her performances under his name.

Eugène Ysaÿe was also close friends with Queen Elisabeth of Belgium, whom he taught violin despite her lack of talent. His widow took over the royal teaching herself after his death, and the queen began the competition in his honor.

Ysaÿe was also a friend of Claude Debussy

Claude Debussy

Claude-Achille Debussy was a French composer. Along with Maurice Ravel, he was one of the most prominent figures working within the field of impressionist music, though he himself intensely disliked the term when applied to his compositions...

 and would sometimes correspond to him by letter. The two had great respect for each other and Ysaÿe was a significant supporter of the younger composer's early career. Debussy dedicated his only string quartet

String Quartet (Debussy)

Claude Debussy wrote his sole String Quartet in G minor, Op. 10 in 1893.-Background:The previous year Debussy had abandoned the opera Rodrigue et Chimène...

 to the violinist who took great care in studying the score. The quartet received its premiere on December 29, 1893 by the Ysaÿe Quartet at the Société Nationale in Paris but to mixed reviews. The virtuoso and the composer also corresponded during the writing of Debussy's Nocturnes.

Works for solo violin

• 6 Sonatas for solo violin, Op. 27
  Six Sonatas for solo violin (Ysaÿe)
  Eugène Ysaÿe's Six sonatas for solo violin, Op. 27, is a set of sonatas for unaccompanied violin written in July 1923. Each sonata was dedicated to one of Ysaÿe’s contemporary violinists: Joseph Szigeti , Jacques Thibaud , George Enescu , Fritz Kreisler , Mathieu Crickboom , and Manuel Quiroga...
  
   (Each dedicated to a different famous violinist and written in their corresponding styles)
  • Sonata No. 1 ("Joseph Szigeti
    Joseph Szigeti
    Joseph Szigeti was a Hungarian violinist.Born into a musical family, he spent his early childhood in a small town in Transylvania. He quickly proved himself to be a child prodigy on the violin, and moved to Budapest with his father to study with the renowned pedagogue Jenő Hubay...
    
    ")
  • Sonata No. 2
    Sonata for Solo Violin, op. 27, no. 2 (Ysaÿe)
    The Sonata for Solo Violin, Op. 27, No. 2 "Jacques Thibaud" is a sonata in four movements from Six sonatas for solo violin, each one dedicated to one of Ysaÿe's contemporary violinists. - Characteristics of the "Thibaud" sonata :...
    
     ("Jacques Thibaud
    Jacques Thibaud
    Jacques Thibaud was a French violinist.Thibaud was born in Bordeaux and studied the violin with his father before entering the Paris Conservatoire at the age of thirteen. In 1896 he jointly won the conservatory's violin prize with Pierre Monteux...
    
    ")
  • Sonata No. 3 ("George Enescu
    George Enescu
    George Enescu was a Romanian composer, violinist, pianist, conductor and teacher.-Biography:Enescu was born in the village of Liveni , Dorohoi County at the time, today Botoşani County. He showed musical talent from early in his childhood. A child prodigy, Enescu created his first musical...
    
    ")
  • Sonata No. 4 ("Fritz Kreisler
    Fritz Kreisler
    Friedrich "Fritz" Kreisler was an Austrian-born violinist and composer. One of the most famous violin masters of his or any other day, he was known for his sweet tone and expressive phrasing. Like many great violinists of his generation, he produced a characteristic sound which was immediately...
    
    ")
  • Sonata No. 5 ("Mathieu Crickboom
    Mathieu Crickboom
    Mathieu Crickboom was a Belgian violinist, who was born in Verviers and died in Brussels.Crickboom was the principal disciple of Eugène Ysaÿe, who dedicated to him his Sonata for Violin Alone No. 5...
    
    ")
  • Sonata No. 6 ("Manuel Quiroga Losada")
• 10 Preludes (Exercises for violin), Op. 35
• Étude posthume

Works for violin and piano

• 2 Mazurkas de Salon, Op. 10
• Lointain passé, Mazurka No. 3 in B minor, Op. 11
• Rêve d'enfant, Op. 14
• Caprice After the Study in the Form of a Waltz (Composed by Camille Saint-Saëns, arranged by Ysaÿe)
• Deux célèbres Arias (Composed by J.S. Bach and G.F. Handel, arranged by Ysaÿe)

Chamber works

• Trio de concert No.1, for piano trio, Op. 33
• Sonata for two violins, Op. posth.
• String Trio, Op. posth. ("Le Chimay")

Concertante works

• Poème élégiaque, for violin and orchestra, Op. 12
• Au rouet, for violin and orchestra, Op. 13
• Chant d'hiver, for violin and orchestra, Op. 15
• Méditation, for cello and orchestra, Op. 16
• Berceuse, for violin and orchestra, Op. 20
• Extase, for violin and orchestra, Op. 21
• Sérénade, for cello and orchestra, Op. 22
• Les neiges d'antan, for violin and orchestra (1911), Op. 23
• Divertimento for violin and orchestra, Op. 24
• Amitié, poem, for 2 violins and orchestra, Op. 26
• Poème nocturne, for violin, cello and orchestra, Op. 29
• Harmonies du soir, for string quartet and orchestra, Op.31
• Fantasia, for violin and orchestra, Op. 32
• Eight violin concertos, some still unpublished

Operas

• "Piére li houyeû" 1931 (Original in Walloon language
  Walloon language
  Walloon is a Romance language which was spoken as a primary language in large portions of the Walloon Region of Belgium and some villages of Northern France until the middle of the 20th century. It belongs to the langue d'oïl language family, whose most prominent member is the French language...
  
   indeed perhaps the only performed opera in that language)

The première of Piére li houyeû (the composer's only opera) took place at the Opéra de Liège on 4 March 1931, during a long evening dedicated to the composer's works, in the presence of Queen Elisabeth (of Belgium) who had become his pupil. Ysaÿe, who was very ill with diabetes, listened to the performance in his hospital room. The Queen, having been informed of the seriousness of Ysaÿe's condition, had organised the radio broadcasting of the work and Ysaÿe was even able to address the audience thanks to a microphone placed in his room. After this unique performance, the work was performed in Brussels, on 25 April. Ysaÿe, having been taken to box on a stretcher, was finally able to follow the performance live. On 12 May, he died.

The critics were appreciative but the opera did not find a place in the standard repertoire. It was performed again in Liège Opéra Royal de Wallonie on 25 November 2006. This performance has been recorded and is now published by the non-profit association "Musique en Wallonie" under the reference MEW 0884 - 0885 in a two CD set accompanied with a book containing the Walloon text and its French, Dutch and English translation, and introductory texts written in French, Dutch, German and English. The story is based on a real incident which occurred in 1877 during a miners' strike in the Liège region. During clashes with the police, some shots were fired. The wife of a foreman rushed forward to seize a grenade which had been placed in the offices by a striker. But the grenade exploded and she was killed.

• "L’avièrge di pièr" (La vierge de pierre) - not completed, not performed

Camille de Creus, piano accompaniment

• 'Prize Song' From Die Meistersinger Von Nürnberg by Wagner, recorded 2/1/1912
• Piece Pittoresque No.10 : Scherzo-Valse by Chabrier, recorded 12/20/1912
• Abendlied, Op. 85, No. 12 by Schumann, recorded 12/24/1912
• Mazurka No. 1 In G Major, Obertass by Wienawski, recorded 12/26/1912
• Mazurka No. 2 In D Major, Dudziarz by Wienawski, recorded 12/26/1912
• Berceuse, Op.16 by Faure, recorded 12/27/1912
• Concerto For Violin And Orchestra In E Minor, Op. 64 (Lll: Allegro Molto Vivace) by Mendelssohn, recorded 12/27/1912
• Rondino, Op. 32, No. 2 by Vieuxtemps, recorded 12/30/1912
• Hungarian Dance No. 5 In F-Sharp Minor by Johannes Brahms, recorded 12/30/1912
• Caprice Viennois, Op. 2 by Kreisler, recorded 12/30/1912
• Albmblatt In C Major by Richard Wagner, recorded 12/30/1912
• Mazurka in B minor, Op. 11 No. 3, 'Lointaine Passe' by Eugene Ysaye, recorded 2/1/1913
• 'Reve D'Enfant', Op. 14 by Eugene Ysaye, recorded 2/1/1913
• Humoresque In G-Flat Major, Op.101, No. 7 by Dvořák, recorded 3/9/1914
• Ave Maria, D.839 by Schubert, recorded 1914, recorded 3/9/1914
• Marche Joyeuse by Chabrier, recorded 11/30/1919

Conducting the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, recorded 11/28/1919

• Intermezzo From Naila (Pas Des Fleurs, Grande Valse), by Delibes
• Overture To Les Dragons De Villars, by Maillart
• 'Navarraise' From Le Cid, by Massenet
• Festival Overture, by Lassen
• Marche Joyeuse, by Chabrier
• Scheherazade, by Rimsky-Korsakov
• Orpheus in Hades, by Offenbach

External links

• Eugène Ysaÿe biography at the Classical Composers Database