In 1886, when he composed his Violin Sonata, César Franck (1822-1890) was 64 years old and still a fairly obscure figure in the French musical world: a church organist and professor of organ at the Paris Conservatory with not much of a reputation as a composer except among a small inner circle of younger composers.
Franck dedicated the Sonata as a wedding present to Eugène Ysaÿe, a young Belgian who was in the process of establishing himself as one of the premier violinists in the world. Ysaÿe played the Sonata frequently over the next 40 or so years (he was fond of telling audiences that he always played it con amore because it was a wedding present), and his championing of the work contributed greatly to the stature Franck achieved only after his death in 1890.
Here is the late violinist David Oistrakh to play this music for you:
