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HighFidelity

by James M. Keller

t would not be quite accurate to elder. Brahms was surely the greater all time, while I will be remembered It is also difficult to overlook some anti- label Max Bruch a “one-work won- composer, but Bruch was often inspired chiefly for having written my G-minor Semitic attitudes to which he gave voice Ider,” but he comes close. He owes and frankly original. It is hard to mis- Violin Concerto. ... Brahms was a far during and after World War I—not almost all of his exposure in modern take the similarity between the openings greater composer than I am for several rea- shocking or even atypical of common- concert life to his Violin Concerto No. 1 of the third movements of Bruch’s G- sons. First of all he was much more origi- places that were bandied about in in G minor, which occupied him on and minor and Brahms’s D-major Violin nal. He always went his own way. He Germany at the time, but nonetheless off for about a decade beginning in Concertos—and it is only fair to point cared not at all about the public reaction regrettable. Looking further into that 1857. Two other Bruch pieces for solo out that the Bruch’s preceded the or what the critics wrote. ... I had a wife question, Bruch’s life does not itself instrument with orchestra appear occa- Brahms by a full decade. The great vio- and children to support and educate. I was bespeak anti-Semitism; he was on cor- sionally on programs: his Kol Nidrei for linist Joseph Joachim premiered both of compelled to earn money with my compo- dial terms (sometimes) with many of the cello, and his Scottish Fantasy for violin. those concertos, but when he was asked sitions. Therefore I had to write works that great Jewish musicians of his time, and In fact, he wrote quite a few pieces for to characterize the four most famous were pleasing and easily understood. I he certainly regarded Mendelssohn as a violin and orchestra, including two fur- German concertos in his repertoire—by never wrote down to the public; my artis- great composer (unlike Wagner, for ther full-fledged violin concertos, and I do wish orchestras would revisit his three symphonies from time to time. In his time Bruch was most acclaimed for his large-scale choral works, particu- larly a string of secular oratorios in the 1870s and ’80s that that included several based on figures of antiquity: Odysseus: Scenes from the Odyssey, Achilleus, and Arminius (which had to do with an early Germanic chieftain and was reportedly wrote chamber music, too Bruch’s favorite among his oratorios). Yet, of all the works in his quite formi- Bruch dable catalog, it is the G-minor Violin Concerto on which his reputation rides. This work helps fill in a curious gap We tend to forget that the that exists in our understanding of 19th- century music. A modern listener could composer who is best known almost be forgiven for assuming that, immediately after the deaths of for his violin concerto and Mendelssohn and Schumann, rather few composers remained active in Germany Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Bruch, and tic conscience would never permit me to do example, who dismissed Mendelssohn’s and Austria apart from Johannes Brahms Brahms—he insisted that Bruch’s was that. I always composed good music but it music largely on grounds of ethnicity). the Kol Nidrei also composed (representing the conservative tradition) “the richest and the most seductive.” was music that sold readily. There was Bruch was blessed with longevity: he and Richard Wagner (who, with Franz Bruch was well aware that he stood in the never anything to quarrel about in my was born at the beginning of 1838, just some quartets, quintets, Liszt, represented the more audacious shadow of Brahms, whom he admired music as there was in that of Brahms. a decade after the passing of Beethoven, avant-garde). In fact, mid-century Ger- and to whom he dedicated “in friend- Weber, and Schubert, and he died in late and even an octet. many was bursting with excellent com- ship” the score of his First Symphony. It’s almost enough to make one shed a 1920, three months shy of his 83rd posers—Hermann Goetz, Otto Nicolai, In 1907 Bruch provided a poignant tear. But before we get all weepy, we birthday, at a time when Stravinsky was Ferdinand Hiller, Felix Draesecke, and but realistic assessment of the situation should probably note that Bruch was in already very famous, Schoenberg was so on—but they all were, and remain, in a conversation with the American many ways his own worst enemy and immersed in dodecaphony, Bartók had overshadowed by Brahms and Wagner. musical chronicler Arthur Abell: that the financial challenges he com- his first two string quartets behind him, Bruch was inherently conservative, plained about (and which he frankly and microtonal music was well enough and it was accordingly his fate to remain Fifty years hence [Brahms] will loom up exaggerated) were at least in part due to established that in some places it was in the shadow of Brahms, five years his as one of the supremely great composers of his splendid talent for alienating people. being viewed as the next big thing.

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Bruch did not relate to any of this. In guished by beauty of tone and musical orchestral breadth and vigour”—what- minor), and at the beginning of 1920 he piece. In the “wind-up” opening to its comparison—but rather with two other fact, it’s probably true that he never architecture. They are naturally modeled ever that’s supposed to mean.) I also like also wrote a String Octet modeled on finale (which, by the way, includes some chamber pieces by Bruch himself: the wrote a really avant-garde piece in his on classical lines, and are not especially the recording of these quartets by the Mendelssohn’s (though the instrumenta- gorgeous duetting in the lower strings), early Septet from 1849 and the A-minor life. So far as I can tell, what he was prominent among the mass of similar Mannheim String Quartet (issued in tion of four violins, two violas, and two the octet greatly resembles Bruch’s own String quintet from 1919 (The New composing in 1920 did not differ in its production.” Of course, we do not hear 1997 on CPO), which goes for a more cellos differed slightly when Bruch substi- celebrated G-minor Violin Concerto. Grove, second edition, says 1918). The musical fundamentals from what he had the mass of similar production today, fluid, seamless approach. The tuted a double bass for the second cello). The players are entirely committed in Septet really is a delight, and I would composed when he first walked into the and hearing the Bruch quartets makes Academica demands attention for these … It was in 1897 that Bruch told Fritz their interpretation and offer commend- encourage any ensemble programming spotlight 70 years before. me wish that we did. works; the Mannheim uses them to Simrock [his publisher, and Brahms’s] that able work of the sort we are accustomed the Beethoven septet to dig into this A forcible reminder of this is his Octet The general impression is that Bruch’s seduce us, conveying the Victorian sen- he preferred “three whole oratorios with to on the Kodály’s many other Naxos piece while they’re at it: I predict they’ll for Strings in B-flat major, a new record- quartets are “Brahms Lite,” by which I timent of the slow movements with par- choir and orchestra to three string quar- releases: not necessarily the last word on want to include it on another program. ing of which (on the Naxos label) has mean to say not that they are objectively ticular grace. tets,” yet here he was writing three chamber a piece or the cleanest performance in (Beethoven surely wouldn’t object, since just hit the stores. Bruch wrote this lightweight but rather that listeners who A Piano Quintet followed in 1886, works in a very short space of time. every detail, but at the very least an he ended up getting very grumpy about three-movement piece in January and finds Brahms’s string quartets forbid- and in 1910 another work that helps excellent “reference copy” for the library. the overwhelming popularity his septet February 1920, and it was one of sever- ding—an understandable and not keep Bruch represented in modern con- I am curious about whether Fifield’s That’s just for the Bruch; with so many enjoyed—at the expense of his later al chamber works clustered at the end of uncommon reaction—will find here cert halls: his Eight Pieces for Clarinet, statement that the Octet is modeled on jaw-dropping interpretations of the compositions.) Nobody would believe his life. Chamber music was not high on something born of a similar spirit but Viola, and Piano (Op. 83). These char- Mendelssohn’s is based on documentary Mendelssohn on disc, I doubt that this this is the work of an 11-year-old. The Bruch’s list for most of his career; and entirely approachable. At least two acter pieces are cousins to Schumann’s evidence or is a subjective impression. will be one you turn to very often—not quintet does not fare quite so well in the given the respectable size of his output recordings of Bruch’s quartets have been Fairy Tales of 1854, and at points they The program notes for the new Naxos because it isn’t good, but rather because it Bronx Arts Ensemble’s performance as and the popularity of chamber music in issued on CD. The one that claimed to are Schumannesque indeed (at others, recording (by Keith Anderson) sidestep isn’t spectacular. the Octet does, but it reaches even deeper Germany during the late 19th century, be the first-ever was released in 1983 Brahmsian). This overwhelmingly minor- the question by saying that Bruch’s I first fell in love with Bruch’s Octet a into Brahmsian territory. Along with the it’s surprising he didn’t write more of it. and appeared on CD in 1993 (on the key set is everywhere beautiful, and the Octet “is seemingly modeled on decade ago, thanks to the “world pre- septet it sets up a firm context for an At the outset of his career, in 1849 Dynamic label—out of print, but we instrumentation is tailor-made for its Mendelssohn’s,” and the performers— miere” recording of it by the Bronx Arts octet that chamber musicians should

(when he was eleven!) he produced an have the World Wide Web to help us autumnal expression. On the other the Kodály and Auer Quartets plus dou- Ensemble (Premiere Recordings, 1995, make a part of their portfolio, the last appealing septet for clarinet, bassoon, overcome such annoyances). It features hand, the eight movements together can ble bassist Zsolt Fejérvári—make the and regrettably out of print). On the chamber work of a composer who demon- horn, violin, viola, cello, and double the Academica Quartet, a Romanian prove lugubrious. As the set is much comparison explicit by pairing the piece whole I prefer their reading to the strates how noteworthy the second tier bass—a big piece of a half-hour’s dura- foursome that was formed in 1967, had recorded and frequently programmed in with the Mendelssohn Octet. I can’t say Kodály/Auer one: it’s far warmer of tone can sometimes be. tion that clearly owes a lot to a strong presence on international stages concert, I feel relieved of the need to that I really hear a connection close and is captured with a more intimate Beethoven’s similarly scored and ever- in the ’70s and ’80s, and faded from promote it here. enough to qualify as “modeling” the dynamic, which serves the piece well popular septet, as well as to the language view not long thereafter—disbanded, I We move ahead to the end of that later piece after the earlier one, although (the more so given the beautiful writing of Schubert. Also early on, between assume. They play Bruch’s quartets very eventful decade, to the moment follow- it would not have been uncharacteristic for lower strings), and they are more 1856 and 1860, while he was still a stu- well indeed, infusing them with hearty ing the end of World War I, and suddenly of Bruch to draw his inspiration from a drawn to pointing out distinctions in dent, he produced a piano trio and two drama, particularly the Quartet No. 2, the aged Bruch is inspired to immerse piece composed nearly a century earlier texture than to striving to homogenize. string quartets. which is the more extroverted of the himself in composing chamber music. His (in 1825). Perhaps something Mendels- But perhaps the strongest advantage the The quartets are highly recommend- two. (Cobbett’s finds the Second “a more biographer Christopher Fifield reports: sohnian is to be found in some of this Premiere CD has over the Naxos is that able. Cobbett’s Cyclopedic Survey of effective work,” adding: “If the first work’s contours; but Schumann and, of it couples Bruch’s Octet not with the James M. Keller is program annotator of Chamber Music averred: “His published movement, Allegro maestoso, has touches At the end of 1919 Bruch wrote two course, Brahms, strike me as more à Mendelssohn octet—which invites an the New York Philharmonic and the San chamber works are one and all distin- of Mendelssohn, it atones by its almost String Quintets (in E flat major and A propos when discussing ancestors to this unwinnable (and possibly specious) Francisco Symphony.

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