Max Bruch (1838 – 1920)
1. Prelude (Allegro Moderato) 2. Adagio 3. Finale (Allegro Enegico)
If one compares it with the other famous concertos of the nineteenth century, one is amazed at its unconventional overall form. True to radition, it had three movements, but in terms of sheer musical material, there is as much in the finale as in the two other movement s put together, and although the conventional fast-slow-fast sequence is retained, the surprising fact is that sonata form is used for all three movements, while tradition calls for ternary song form for the slow movement and (usually) a rondo for the finale. Bruch was naturally aware of this and, not without reason, first chose the title “Fantasy” for the work. However, he allowed Joachim to persuade him that “Concerto” was a more effective title.
The additional title “Prelude” (Vorspiel) was retained for the opening Allegro. The absence of any marked division between the movements, after the example of the Mendelssohn Concerto, emphasises the “Fantasy” character as do the recapitulations in the first and second movements, which are clearly abbreviated and tuned into transitions. The Hun-garian-style theme of the finale, which has a close affinity with that of Brahm’s Violin Concerto, may have been provided by Joachim, who was Hunarian born.
Max Bruch was born in Cologne in 1838 and died in 1920 in Berlin, where he was professor of composition and vicepresident of the Music Academy. He is known today almost exclusively for his Violin Concerto in G minor, which belongs with the violin concertos of Beethoven. Meldelssohn, Brahms, and Tchaikovsky to the select repertory of nine-teenth-century violin works. His great choral works, which were very widely performed in the late nineteenth century and esteemed above those of Brahms, his many concertos and concert pieces, the chamber music, and a great many songs all seem to have faded.
The Violin Concerto in G minor, Op.26 was not only Bruch’s first instrumental concerto, but his first big orchestral work in general. Since he had thus far published only vocal music, it is not surprising that he had considerable difficulty with the composition and spent much time making alterations and refinements before he was finally satisfied with the result. The sketches go back to 1864, and the first performance was given in Koblenz on April 24,1866. After this, however, Bruch withdrew the work and revised it thoroughly, seeking advice on the writing of the violin part from many musicians, both composers and violinists. In particular he conculted Joseph Joachim, to whom the concerto was finally dedicated and who gave the first performance in the definitive version in Bremen on January 7, 1868. In a letter to his publisher Simrock in 1872, Bruch wrote: “…The composition of violin concertos is a cursed difficulty business…From 1864 to 1868, I took my concerto to pieces at least half a dozen times, and conferred with violinists before it finally achieved the form in which it is now generally known, and played everywhere.”
The concerto became widely popular very quickly, and although at first Bruch was vastly delighted with its success, he soon came to execrate all violinists who played only his “universal” concerto and neglected his other violin works. He even sent in a letter to the musicologist Philipp Spitta in the winter of 1893 some satirical epigrams in the manner of Goethe and Schiller. One of them, headed “Prohibition by Order of the Polica, concerning M.B.’s first Concerto, “reads: “Since recently the astounding eventuality has come to pass/ That violins have of their own accord, been playing the First Concerto We make known with all possible haste, to reassure fearful soues/ That we hereby sternly prohibit the said concerto.”
The reason for the continuing popularity of this G minor work lies largely in the fact that it was the first concerto and also that both sentiment (in slow movement) and virtuosity (in the finale) were fully exploited.
