The Works

Welcome to The Works, the playlist featuring the latest and best classical music albums. Each week, our editors highlight the week’s top releases, including incredible performances of well-known works by both established and emerging artists. This week violinist Sueye Park mesmerises with her performance of the “Malinconia” from Eugène Ysaÿe’s Sonata No. 2 for solo violin. It’s the final track of the Korean musician’s upcoming album Echoes of Exile, a recital programme focusing on works by displaced composers and those who “went into their own inner exile”. Talking to Apple Music Classical, Park describes the still beauty of Ysaÿe’s music as “mysterious, unknowable, compassionate, and kind of ‘accepting the fate’.” The piece, she continues, “is full of moments that grab your ear and soul”. Composing towards the end of the 19th century and into the 20th, Ysaÿe was hugely influenced by the music of J.S. Bach, including the Baroque composer’s sonatas and partitas for solo violin. “Ysaÿe’s relationship with Baroque music—especially through Bach—was reverent, inspirational, and foundational,” says Park. “He did not imitate the Baroque; he reimagined it for his time, using its formal strength to build something personal and modern.” The result is a piece that speaks across the centuries, combining the grace and reassuring structure of 18th century music with a late-Romantic, plaintive reflection on a world that was on the verge of changing forever. Ysaÿe reinforces this message towards the end of the movement with a quote of the medieval plainchant Dies irae (Day of Wrath). We are, the music seems to say, tethered to fate and to its imminent upheavals. Don’t forget that we regularly update The Works, so if you find a piece of music or a performance you particularly love, be sure to add it to your library.