Hilary Hahn's recording of Ysaÿe's Six Sonatas for solo violin – recently named as Gramophone's Recording of the Year for 2024 – will open many ears to the world of solo violin music, so here, alongside the Ysaÿe recording, are some highly recommended musical avenues to explore form a broad range of musical periods.

We decided that each violinist should get only one recording and we've tried not to duplicate works, though inevitably there is some crossover between albums, and the list is arranged chronologically by composer. We've included links to the original Gramophone reviews in the Reviews Database (which you can subscribe to here: magsubscriptions.com) and you can sample each album with the Presto Music players (for full tracks, you can subscribe to Presto Music's streaming service here: prestomusic.com).

Finally, this is not intended to be a definitive list, more an open invitation for further exploration...

JS Bach Sonatas & Partitas for solo violin, BWV1001-1006

Alina Ibragimova

Hyperion

Editor's Choice (November 2009) ● Gramophone Collection – Top Choice (June 2011)

‘All her stylishness and technical refinement is at the service of an ingrained understanding of the music; she makes us feel where the points of harmonic tension and emphasis are, and she’s able to do it without distorting the surface of the music...’ Duncan Druce

Read the review | Buy or stream on Presto Music

Tutta sola

Rachel Podger 

Channel Classics

Gramophone Awards Shortlist 2023

‘Consistent beauty of tone isn’t a priority for Podger and her 1739 Pesarinius in this repertoire. In her hands the violin sings like a soprano, blares like a trumpet, spits, whispers and even wheedles like a crying child. She can be severe, for example in the angular Sarabande from the Klagenfurt Manuscript, celebratory in the fanfare-like Corelli transcription from John Walsh’s Select Preludes and Vollentarys for the Violin or the Allegro assai from the Tartini Piccola sonata, and plaintive in the same work’s central song based on a verse by Tasso...’ David Threasher

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Telemann Fantasias for solo violin, TWV 40:14-25

Fabio Biondi 

Glossa

Gramophone Awards Shortlist 2017

‘There is a beguiling naturalness here that has not always been Biondi’s thing, and that suits this music so well that even the whirlingly fast tempi he chooses for some movements are in no danger of jarring...’ Lindsay Kemp

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Paganini Caprices for solo violin, Op 1 Nos 1-24

James Ehnes 

Onyx

Recording of the Month (January 2010)

‘Ehnes is my clear recommendation. He really is a top-class violinist, and it’s a joy to hear such difficult pieces sounding so completely comfortable and unfettered...’ Duncan Druce

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Ysaÿe Six Sonatas for solo violin, Op 27

Hilary Hahn 

DG

Gramophone Recording of the Year 2024 ● Instrumental Award 2024 ● Recording of the Month (August 2023)

‘Hilary Hahn’s unique qualities – her rich, pulsing tone, her technical mastery, her unabashed confidence, her imagination and her ability to present the music as fresh-minted (she seems to have located a hotline to Ysaÿe’s muse) – inclines me towards her recording as the finest currently available...’ Rob Cowan

Read the review | Buy or stream on Presto Music

Bartók Sonata for Solo Violin

Frank Peter Zimmermann

BIS

Gramophone Awards Shortlist 2021 ● Recording of the Month (January 2021)

‘What commends Zimmermann’s performance above his rivals is his focus on the Bartók not as a daunting obstacle, requiring virtuosity for its own sake, but solely as magnificent music...’ Guy Rickards

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Bartók, Ligeti, Veress & Eötvös

Nurit Stark

BIS

Gramophone Instrumental Award 2023

‘Quite a journey, one that’s profoundly representative of the Hungarian musical psyche in the 20th century and which is served by a musician whose talents certainly qualify her for the job of performing it...’ Rob Cowan

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Weinberg Sonatas for Violin Solo

Gidon Kremer 

ECM New Series

‘This release – in sound of spaciousness and clarity, with booklet notes providing much food for thought – is a definite first choice for these outstanding pieces...’ Richard Whitehouse

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Journey Through A Century

Sueye Park

BIS

Recording of the Month (September 2021) ● Gramophone Awards Shortlist 2022

‘The recording captures Park’s instrument with amazing realism, and those with Super Audio CD capability can benefit further still from BIS’s exceptionally well-balanced engineering. If this isn’t a potential Gramophone Award-winner, I don’t know what is...’ Rob Cowan

Read the review | Buy or stream on Presto Music

Corigliano The Red Violin Caprices Thomson Eight Portraits for Violin Alone

Philippe Quint

Naxos

Editor's Choice (September 2008)