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Eugène Ysaÿe was a Belgian virtuoso violinist, composer, and conductor. He was regarded as “The King of the Violin“, or, as Nathan Milstein put it, the “tsar“. As a self-taught composer, he produced several important works, mainly the Poèmes for various instruments (of which Poème élégiaque is the most famous, and it influenced Chausson to write his Poème), and 6 Sonatas for Solo Violin. From the beginning of his career, Ysaÿe had been interested in compositions, which can be revealed in the early virtuosic pieces. However, he wanted to write a more mature and developed piece, which resulted in the creation of 9 poemes. The first of those was inspired by Romeo and Juliet, and was composed in 1892-1896, and orchestrated in 1902-4. It was dedicated to Gabriel Fauré, and it influenced Chausson’s Poeme greatly (it is said that Ysaye proofread and modified the Chausson Poeme’s Violin part, and in many places of this piece, we can see si
