Eugène Ysaÿe

Eugène-Auguste Ysaÿe (Known as "King of the Violin")

King of the Violin, Composer, Conductor, Master of the Six Sonatas for Solo Violin (Op. 27)

Born Jul 16, 1858

Liège, Belgium

Passed Away May 12, 1931 Brussels, Belgium

Lifespan 72 years old

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Notice / Correction

"To play the violin is not to display fingers; it is to pull the weeping, singing soul of man across vibrating strings."

Archival Overview

Universally crowned the 'King of the Violin', Liège-born virtuoso and composer whose monumental Six Sonatas for Solo Violin (Op. 27) transformed twentieth-century string technique and who inspired Cesar Franck's Violin Sonata.

Biographical Record

Studying under Vieuxtemps and Wieniawski at the Liège and Brussels Conservatories, Ysaÿe possessed an intoxicating, singing tone and revolutionary freedom of rubato. César Franck presented his famous Violin Sonata in A major to Ysaÿe as a wedding gift in 1886, which Ysaÿe championed across the world.

He served as music director of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra (1918–1922). In 1923, inspired by J.S. Bach's partitas, Ysaÿe composed his supreme masterpiece: the Six Sonatas for Solo Violin (Op. 27), each dedicated to a fellow virtuoso (including Szigeti, Kreisler, Enescu, and Thibaud).

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Final Resting Place

Perpetual Memorial

Ixelles Cemetery (Cimetière d'Ixelles)
Ixelles (Brussels), Belgium

                         GPS: 50.8167, 4.3833                    

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