Brahms / Bruch: Violin Concertos

Description

Max Bruch (1838 - 1920) Violin Concerto No.1 in G minor, Op. 26 Johannes Brahms (1833 - 1897) Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 77Cadenza by Fritz KreislerMax Bruch's G Minor Violin Concertocontinues to enjoy wide popularity, while much of his music remains unknown tomodern audiences. He was born in Cologne in 1838, the son of a Governmentofficial and a mother who was well known as a teacher and singer. He washimself to enjoy a reputation as both conductor and composer, and was for atime conductor of the Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, before taking up asimilar position in Breslau. From 1891 until his retirement in 1910 he wasentrusted with the composition master-class at the Berlin Musikhochschule, anappointment of considerable prestige.The G Minor Violin Concerto avoidstraditional form, its first movement a Prelude that opens with aquasi-improvisatory passage for the soloist. There is a second, contrastingtheme in B flat major, and some development of this material, before thesecond, slow movement, which follows without a break. Here the violin openswith a melody of great emotional intensity, in the key of E flat, providing themain source of thematic material for the movement.A brief linking passage leads us safelyto the finale in the key of G major and the entry of the solo violin in a moodthat must remind us of the last movement of the concerto by Brahms. Thisopening forms the principal theme of the movement, although furtheropportunities are provided for the soloist, with rapid passage-work as well asa typically forceful romantic theme.Bruch showed his concerto to Brahms andplayed it through to him, with a great deal of enthusiasm and sweat. The oldercomposer, not known for his tact, stood up when the performance was over andwalking over to the piano took a sheet of the score, feeling it between fingersand thumb and remarking \Where do you buy your music paper? First rate! Theconcerto has impressed other listeners rather more deeply.Johannes Brahms was born in Hamburg in1833, the son of a double bass player and a woman thirteen years his senior,who kept a small haberdasher's shop. It seemed at first as if he might followhis father's relatively humble profession as an orchestral player, but hisability as a pianist and as a composer, the latter ability fostered by hisgenerous teacher Marxsen, suggested higher ambitions. After a period of hackwork, teaching and playing in dockside taverns, he had his first significantsuccess in a tour with the Hungarian violinist Remenyi in 1853. Friendship withthe violinist Joachim led to an unproductive visit to Liszt in Weimar and to amore fruitful meeting with Schumann, now established in Duesseldorf as directorof music. It was Schumann who detected in the young musician a successor toBeethoven, a forbidding prognostication. Brahms was to continue hisrelationship with Clara Schumann after her husband's breakdown and subsequentdeath in 1856.It was not until 1864 that Brahms settledfinally in Vienna, having f