‘All the Ysaÿes played the fiddle as a matterof course’, wrote Eugène Ysaÿe’s son, ‘andas a matter of course [my father] wouldnaturally follow the family tradition. Howcould he escape it? His destiny was alreadycast – straight from the atavistic crucible.’

Ysaÿe’s own father often beat musical senseinto his prodigiously talented boy’s fingersand also passed on the gift of what Ysaÿsdescribed as being able ‘to speak throughthe violin’.

Julia Fischer here directs herspellbinding technical prowess andtremendous musicianship to Ysaÿe’s fiendishlydifficult, sublimely romantic Violin Sonatas.