Duration: Approximately 24 minutes
Composer: Max Bruch (Born in Cologne, Germany in 1838; died in Berlin in 1920)
Work composed: First completed and premiered in 1866. Bruch then made extensive revisions in 1867 with the help of the great German violin virtuoso, Joseph Joachim.
World premiere (in its revised form): 1868, with Joachim as the soloist, in Bremen, Germany.
Instrumentation: 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani, and strings)
1. Vorspiel – Allegro moderato
2. Adagio
3. Finale – Allegro energico
The German composer Max Bruch wrote a good number of exceptional works, but his legacy today is most famously remembered by his masterpiece Violin Concerto No. 1. In part, this Concerto’s fame comes from its association with the great violin virtuoso Joseph Joachim (1831–1907). Bruch’s first version of the Concerto was premiered in 1866 but he was dissatisfied with it and began to revise it the following year. For this revision, the composer sought the help of Joachim, Austria and Germany’s most famous violinist. Joachim supplied more virtuosity and playability to the solo part, but with his keen sense of musicality, he also advised on pacing and drama in the work as a whole. It was Joachim who then premiered the revised Concerto in 1868 and the work met with wild success. It is this revised version that has remained in the repertoire, delighting audiences ever since.
As much as Bruch’s Concerto owes to Joachim, Bruch himself was a highly respected composer, most notably for his exceptionally beautiful vocal works. Thus, it’s not surprising that one of the many reasons that his first Violin Concerto is so popular is because of how song-like it is, each movement filled with luxuriant, singable themes.
Bruch titles his first movement a “Vorspiel,” meaning “Prelude.” It’s an unconventional way to begin a concerto, and by doing so Bruch seems to be tipping his hat to the Baroque preludes which could be much like musical fantasias. “Prelude” is in fact the perfect term to describe the fantasia-like beginning of this enchanting Concerto. With its quiet opening of a humming tremolo roll in the timpani, followed by a dark and richly-hued wind and horn motive, the Concerto feels as though it’s setting off into a fantastic fairy tale, staged in a mist-laced forest with mystery hiding in the shadows. That whispered introduction quickly flows into the voice of the solo violin, whose softly upsurging theme is lyrical and quasi-rhapsodic. One of Bruch’s most beguiling moments happens soon after, at about one-and-a-half minutes, when the orchestra answers that longing solo violin statement – in the lowest part of the orchestra, the timpani, cellos and basses pulse and thrum in a heartbeat rhythm, while overtop of this the upper strings of the orchestra magically sparkle with tremolos (oscillating bow strokes across the string to create a shimmering effect). After blending hushed lyricism with moments of thrilling dramatics, the first movement then ebbs into a moment of extreme calm, as the strings hold a long, unison note low in their range.
Without any pause, the solo violin then emerges quietly out of the strings’ long, low note to begin the second movement, Adagio. The soloist’s heart-melting song, amidst the atmosphere of serenity and beauty that Bruch creates in this transition of movements, is one of the most breath-taking moments in all of Western music. The movement progresses as the soloist provides several exquisite themes while the orchestra pulsates and gleams beneath them. The movement then begins to build to a particularly majestic central climax when the full orchestra picks up two of the soloist’s themes, playing them in counterpoint to each other. Following that grand moment, the violin returns with a series of unhurried rhapsodic solos, and the movement subsides into quiet and gentleness until the final bar.
The Finale is a joyous occasion. A brief introduction by the orchestra begins this movement quietly but with an underlying fire, which quickly gains steam by adding instruments and volume, until the solo violin virtually vaults into the spotlight. With leaps and skips, clusters of double and triple-stops (two and three notes played on the violin simultaneously), and a lot of bravissimo, the soloist’s first theme is an exuberant dance. It’s unmistakably gypsy influenced, the Hungarian folk music that was all the rage in the middle-to-late 19th Century. To temper that energy, Bruch creates a second theme that is as regal and lyrical as the gypsy dance is infectious. The Finale cavorts between these two themes until the coda (ending section), when both dance and majesty make way for a sprint of pure excitement to the final bar. There is no true cadenza in Bruch’s great Concerto, which is one of its many charms. Instead, the entire last movement is essentially a virtuosic cadenza for the soloist, into which the orchestra adds its voice.
Inventive and filled with lyricism, this Concerto has remained a great favorite for violinists and audiences for well over a century. At his 75th birthday celebration in 1906, Joachim talked about his long career and his favorite concertos. Referring to Beethoven, Brahms, Mendelssohn, and Bruch, he gave superlatives for each, and saying:
“The Germans have four violin concertos…
The richest [and] the most seductive was
written by Max Bruch.”