It is with great pleasure that we present violinist Alexey Stychkin's debut recital on the Classeek Ambassador Programme, featuring a captivating duo performance alongside pianist Raúl da Costa. The technical prowess of both musicians will be placed under the microscope this evening, with a range of demanding, diverse and highly expressive works.

The recital opens with one of Ysaÿe’s six violin sonatas, written in the early 20th century and representing the evolution of musical techniques and stylings of the time. Each sonata is dedicated to a fellow virtuoso of Ysaÿe, who was himself a celebrated violinist. The second plays homage to Ysaÿe’s friend and mentee, Jacques Thibaud, a violinist renowned for his elegant phrasing and charming tone. While the complete set of sonatas were inspired by the sonatas and partitas of JS Bach, Sonata No. 2 is subtitled ‘Obsession’ because of its particularly notable preoccupation with the great Baroque composer. The piece opens with a reference to the prelude of Bach’s Partita No. 3, which is soon dissected by Ysaÿe, who blends it with references to the Dies irae plainchant from the traditional Requiem mass.

It was Ysaÿe who, in turn, provided the inspiration for the next piece in tonight’s programme. Franck’s lone violin sonata was penned as a wedding present to Ysaÿe and his new wife, Louise Bourdeau, when they married in 1886, and quickly became a mainstay of Ysaÿe’s touring programmes around Europe. Imbued with lyricism and introspection, it has become a beloved gem in the Romantic repertoire, shifting between dramatic and delicate as the violin and piano dance around one another.

Ravel began writing his Second Violin Sonata in 1923, the very same year Ysaÿe wrote his sonatas. Unlike Ysaÿe however, Ravel wasn’t interested in the seamless interplay between the violin and piano. Instead, his focus was on their independence, describing the instruments as ‘essentially incompatible, which not only do not sink their differences, but accentuate incompatibility to an even greater degree.’ In this sonata, he celebrates their own distinct identities. As is the case in several other of Ravel’s works – not least his opera L’enfant et les sortilèges and his two piano concertos – the sonata pays tribute to the composer’s love of jazz, with its central movement ‘Blues’ referencing the American idiom with syncopations, honky-tonk rhythmic patterns and violin slides. Stychkin and da Costa will showcase Ravel’s unique blend of impressionistic and neoclassical elements in the intricate dialogues within this sonata.

From Ysaÿe’s technical brilliance to Franck’s emotional depth and Ravel’s innovative sonorities, this promises to be a fine display of music-making at its most dynamic, showing the full expressive range on offer to the violin.

Programme notes by Freya Parr