Bruch: Violin Concerto No. 1 & Other Works (Hyperion Romantic Violin Concerto 19)

Featuring

Jack Liebeck
Martyn Brabbins
BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra
Max Bruch

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Performer Biography

Martyn Brabbins, the conductor, won first prize at the 1988 Leeds Conductors' Competition and has recorded over fifty albums for Hyperion.

Cultural Impact

The Violin Concerto No. 1's popularity was strengthened in the 1950s because its length was ideal for one side of an LP record, leading many companies to couple it with Mendelssohn's E minor concerto.

Critical Reception

The London critic of The Times found Bruch's Violin Concerto No. 1 "full of pretension, but almost destitute of interest" at its 1868 premiere, a verdict posterity has not endorsed.

Composition History

Bruch's Violin Concerto No. 1 underwent a "tortuous gestation," being rewritten "at least half a dozen times" with significant input from the Hungarian violinist Joseph Joachim.

Compositional Technique

Bruch's Violin Concerto No. 1 follows Mendelssohn in having its three movements play almost continuously and pays homage to Beethoven by opening with a soft timpani roll.

Composer Biography

Max Bruch, the composer, sold the copyrights to his Violin Concerto No. 1 for a pittance and regretted it for the rest of his life, living in penury in his last years.

Performer Biography

Jack Liebeck, the violinist on this recording, is a professor of violin at the Royal Academy of Music and plays the 'Ex-Wilhelmj' J B Guadagnini violin dated 1785.