Full-blooded Performance

'... the whole recital has rare commitment and power.'

Lekeu died one day after his twenty-fourth birthday, leaving behind a remarkable body of music. A last pupil of César Franck, than whom many worse mentors flourished in the succeeding century, Lekeu was assessed by Debussy as 'the only musician whom Beethoven really inspired'. His Belgian Prix de Rome cantata on the subject of Andromeda failed to win the prize, but attracted the attention of Ysaÿe, who commissioned this sonata, a serious and passionate work that remains one of his finest achievements.He was dismissed twice for failing to win any prizes, then broke records by five futile attempts at the Prix de Rome, though he had already written the masterful String Quartet...