June 17, 1899

Ysaÿe premiered Chausson’s Poème in London. He wrote a letter to Chausson’s children:

Today, June 17, 1899, three thousand listeners, informed of the composer’s death, listened pensively and religiously and with an emotion that I felt to be increasing—to his Poème in whose sad and sublimely plaintive melody I let my heart sob. Your father has received today—I affirm it, for I felt it very strongly—the first leaf of a crown of glory, which all the peoples will weave for him; and I, who was among the first to understand, love, and admire the intimate musician, the sincere and gently melancholic poet he was—I was today still more moved at the thought that I was the first after his death to place humbly all my artistic strength at the service of one of his works, whose pure beauty will reflect itself on all of you.