Eugene Ysaye

Trio Le Londres

The Belgian composer, conductor and violinist Eugène Ysaÿe (1858-1931) studied with H. Wieniawsky in Brussels and took numerous trips as a soloist, particularly to the USA where he worked as a conductor in Cincinnati among others. From 1886 he was professor at the Conservatoire of Brussels. In 1894 he brought the Brussels Ysaÿe Concerts into being, founded a string quartet and his own orchestra. Ysaÿe was among the great virtuosos of his time. Many great composers dedicated their works to him, such as César Franck who was a close friend of his, C. Debussy, C. Saint-Saëns, E. Elgar, and G. Fauré. His compositional oeuvre comprises mainly sonatas and concertos for violin, but also numerous small-scale works.His trio 'Le Londres' was originally conceived as a sonata for 2 violins for his pupil Queen Elisabeth of Belgium. As it was technically too demanding, Ysaÿe rearranged it for 2 violins and viola. For this new edition, Nandor Szederkenyi reconstructed the work, part of which had been destroyed in a fire in 1927, on the basis of a manuscript copy.