It was Antje Weithaas’ own idea to jointly record Johann Sebastian Bach’s six sonatas and partitas for solo violin in conjunction with Eugene Ysaye’s six...

It was Antje Weithaas’ own idea to jointly record Johann Sebastian Bach’s six sonatas and partitas for solo violin in conjunction with Eugene Ysaye’s six solo violin sonatas. “The works by Bach are rather well-known,” she remarks. “But what about the Ysaye sonatas? Ysaye is invariably shoved into the virtuoso corner, but as a composer he is to be taken quite seriously!” These solo works by Bach inspired Belgian violin celebrity Eugene Ysaye to write his Six Sonatas for Solo Violin, op. 27, dedicating each one of them to a great violinist of his time. Ysaye is regarded as the main representative of the Franco-Flemish violin school, closely associated with the fin-de-siecle period when architecture was awash with flowery ornaments. In painting and poetry, meanwhile, symbolism and sensuality abounded. Artists either adored or detested Wagner, who became the main subject of musical discussions throughout Europe. Ysaye is said to have conceived the plan of the Six Violin Sonatas within the course of one day in 1924, when he was 66 years old.