This concert by Joanna Staruch-Smolec is the first part of the defence of a thesis devoted to Eugène Ysaÿe's violin technique.

Eugène Ysaÿe (1858–1931) occupies a mythical place in the collective imagination of violinists, where his image as a virtuoso is often conveyed in a diffuse manner, somewhere between admiration and legend. This thesis in Art and Art Sciences (ULB-CrB) offers a systematic study of his violin technique based on material evidence: phonographic recordings and autograph annotations, placed in the organological context of his era. Taking Ysaÿe's reflections on the role of the performer as its starting point, this research establishes a theoretical and practical framework supported by an innovative methodology that combines scientific rigour and artistic creativity. The programme for this concert offers an overview of the repertoire explored by Joanna Staruch-Smolec on the violin throughout her doctoral studies, illustrating the aesthetic and technical issues at the heart of this approach.

Program:
Henriette van den Boorn-Coclet - Sonata for violin and piano, first movement
Eugène Ysaÿe - Adaptation of Frédéric Chopin's Waltzes Op. 34 No. 2
Richard Wagner/August Wilhelmj - Walther's Preislied
Ernest Chausson - Poème for violin and orchestra Op. 25

Joanna Staruch-Smolec (violin) - PhD student in Art and Art Sciences at the Musicology Laboratory of the Université libre de Bruxelles in collaboration with the Conservatoire royal de Bruxelle.
Krzysztof Potocznik (piano) - graduate of the Conservatoire royal de Bruxelle in 2021
Under the supervision of Valérie Dufour (ULB-FNRS), Véronique Bogaerts and Vincent Hepp (Crb)

MIM - Museum of Musical Instruments
2 rue Montagne de la Cour - 1000 Brussels

Free entrance, without reservation