"Ilya Kaler, who has won Gold Medals at the Tchaikovsky, Sibelius and Paganini competitions, takes all of Ysaye's hurdles in effortless stride and at the same time makes everything about the music sound perfectly lucid, undeniably logical, and poetically charged. Quite simply, Kaler's new Naxos disc is one of the most astonishingly brilliant and satisfying violin recordings of a twentieth century score that I have ever heard. Kaler's artistry evinces many qualities. For one, his control of pitch is absolutely, breath-takingly dead on center.Another aspect of Kaler's supreme mastery can be found in his exquisite manipulation of dynamic levels, and of the gradients he achieves within the broader dynamic markings.I have to admit that while I have always been intrigued by the Ysaye sonatas, I have most often come away thinking the music somewhat of a hash: Bach a la Art Brut. Ilya Kaler convinces me otherwise. In addition to the expressive articulation he achieves with nuances of pitch and dynamic shadings, and with the colors he produces by the artistry of his bowing, Kaler projects patient and intellectual comprehension of Ysaye's rhetoric. That is, he doesn't simply run the race to get to the finish line without stumbling, but, moving at a somewhat more leisurely tempo than most fiddlers take the sonatas, he provides a thoughtful and appreciative view of the emotive landscape that Ysaye describes. Kaler accomplishes all this without losing the improvisatory spirit so crucial to the now tempestuous, now meditative music. For the first time, Ysaye's knotty sonatas make sense! Ysaye was a disciple of Franck and a precursor of Bartok, and Ilya Kaler manages to situate him perfectly between these two poles. The success of this highly recommended CD is in no small part promoted by the first rate sound engineering achieved by Toronto's own production team of Bonnie Silver and Norbert Kraft. Here is the sound of a recorded solo violin that could hardly offer anything better in terms of balance, focus, warmth, detail, presence, and total absence of the "glassiness" that still afflicts too many digital recordings sold at three times the Naxos budget price. In short, a faultless recording." — Richard Perry, Ottawa Citizen (April 11th, 2004)

"The Russian violinist Ilya Kaler, gold medallist in the Sibelius, Tchaikovsky and Paganini competitions and now teaching in Chicago, gives a performance of the utmost confidence and command, strongly characterising each of the six works." — Calum MacDonald, BBC Music Magazine (April 2004)