EUGENE

See also:

• EUGENE YSAYE (1858— )

YSAYE (1858— )  , Belgian violinist, was born at Liege, where he studied with his father and under R . Massart, at the Conservatoire, until he was fifteen; he had some lessons from Wieniawski, and later from Vieuxtemps . In 1879 Ysaye played in Germany, and next year acted as leader of Bilse's orchestra in Berlin; he appeared in Paris in 1883, and for the first time in London at a Philharmonic concert in 1889 . He was violin professor at the Brussels Conservatoire from 1886 to 1898, and instituted the celebrated orchestral concerts of which he was manager and conductor . Ysaye first appeared as conductor before a London audience in 1900, and in 1907 conducted Fidelio at Covent Garden . The sonata concerts in which he played with Raoul Pugno (b . 1852), the French pianist, became very popular in Paris and Brussels, and were notable features of several London concert seasons . As a violinist he ranks with the finest masters of the instrument, with extraordinary tempera-mental power as an interpreter .