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YSAYE, EUGENE-AUGUSTE. (1858-1931). Belgian violinist, conductor and composer. SP. (“E. Ysaye”). 1p. Tall 4to. (7¼” x 12”). Brussels, 1896. A full-length, imperial cabinet sepia photograph depicting Ysaye holding his bow and violin and inscribed in French in the upper right corner to his colleague and friend, his student, violinist Miss [EILEEN] O’MOORE (1873-1937), adding “son admirateur” (“her admirer”). Beloved for his tone and unique technical abilities, Ysaye counted among his admirers Joseph Joachim, Anton Rubinstein, Franz Liszt, Pablo Casals, and Clara Schumann as well as those who composed works for him like Claude Debussy, Camille Saint Saens and Caesar Frank, whose Violin Sonata in A was his wedding gift to the violinist. While health problems curtailed his performing career, Ysaye taught at the Brussels Conservatoire where his students included Ernest Bloch, Nathan Milstein and George Enescu, to name but a few. He also composed numerous works for violin, chamber and symphony orchestras and perhaps the only opera ever composed in the Walloon language. Ysaye used his 1734 “Hercules” Stradivarius violin for practice, preferring his Guarneri for performing. In 1928 Ysaye had a label inserted in his Guarneri stating, “Ce Del Jesus fut le fiddle compagnone de ma vie’”- “This fiddle was the faithful companion of my life.” Subsequent owners were Charles Munch and violinist, Isaac Stern. The Nippon Music Foundation currently owns the instrument. Ysaye’s Stradivarius was stolen from him while performing in Russia in 1908. It was recovered in 1947, in Berlin, and Henryk Szerying owned it before giving it to the Israeli Philharmonic. In 1898, Ysaye was offered the position of musical director of the New York Philharmonic, but turned it down. Australian violinist Lydia Elizabeth “Bessie” Doyle (later Mitchell), adopted the stage name Eileen O’Moore, studied at the Leipzig Conservatoire, and “produced quite a sensation” when she performed Paganini in Leipzig and Vienna in 1896, (The Year’s Music, 1896). The same year, she appeared in Wiesbaden, Germany, alongside Joachim, Burmeister and Ysaye. She earned praise for her interpretations of Spohr and Tchaikovsky and was billed as the “greatest living lady violinist” while touring in London, Australia and New Zealand. She later taught violin in Sydney. Corners are slightly; overall fine.