He thought the violin could sing better than the piano. And he let the violin sing, as in the beautiful Adagio of his famous Violin Concerto No. 1, op.26. His friendship with violinists like Joachim and Sarasate would inspire him to create a number of more concertante works, but unfortunately Max Bruch is mainly remembered as the composer of that one violin concerto. As if this one concert held a
… beautiful promise that the older Bruch has never been able to fulfill. Maybe it was his over-conservatism. For example, this reactionary nationalist from the Bismarck era labeled more progressive colleagues such as the Herren R. Strauss, Reger und Consorten as partygoers of the 'musikalischen Sozialdemokratie'. Perhaps it was also because he was a contemporary of Brahms, from whose shadow he was never able to step out. That one violin concert is in any case very successful, as is shown again by listening to a performance with Isabelle van Keulen and the Bamberger Symphoniker conducted by Gilbert Varga. This CD also contains the Third Violin Concerto op.58. (HJ) _more
