Max Bruch

Max Bruch remained steadfast to traditional values at a time when the musical world around him seemed to be abandoning conventional tonality. His last completed work, an enchanting Octet for strings in B flat major (1920), is as melodically radiant, unashamedly tonal and expressively beguiling as the celebrated G minor Violin Concerto Op. 26 (rev. 1867) he had composed more than half a century before. Bruch was born into a musically supportive family in Cologne in 1838. Lessons with Ferdinand Hiller instilled in him the classical values of good taste, expressive economy and structural concision that would underpin the remainder of his output. Following the success of the first (1868) of his three symphonies, Bruch became particularly friendly with another traditionalist: Brahms. Contact with the Spanish violinist Sarasate inspired a Second Violin Concerto (1878) and Scottish Fantasy (1880), yet arguably Bruch’s finest music lies hidden in his choral works Odysseus (1872) and Arminius (1877). With his passing in 1920, the golden age of German Romanticism effectively came to an end.