Ysaӱe - Sonatas for Solo Violin

The Guardian 80

Giovanni Guzzo
(Rubicon)

We haven’t been short of recordings of Eugène Ysaӱe’s six sonatas lately, but this one, by Venezuelan violinist Giovanni Guzzo, deserves extra attention. Ysaӱe wrote each sonata with one of his fellow virtuosi in mind. Guzzo brings to No 1 a thoughtfulness and rigour that Joseph Szigeti would have applauded; No 2 has the grace of Jaques Thibaud, and the often-repeated Dies Irae figure really does recall plainchant in the haunting smoothness Guzzo gives it each time. Best of all is the impressionistic No 5, written for Ysaӱe’s friend Mathieu Crickboom, in which Guzzo conveys the glancing light and shade in its mercurial shifts of mood. Guzzo is able to encompass all these changes of style and emphasis while drawing all six works into a coherent whole that’s distinctively his. Even though we’re alone with one player, one instrument and a whole bookful of technical challenges for over an hour, there’s nothing dry about this disc.