Max Bruch (6 January 1838 – 2 October 1920) was a German composer, violinist, teacher, and conductor. He created more than 200 musical works, including three violin concertos. The first of these concertos is now commonly performed by violinists around the world.
Early life and education
Max Bruch was born in 1838 in Cologne to Wilhelmine (née Almenräder), a singer, and August Carl Friedrich Bruch, an attorney who later became vice president of the police in Cologne. Max had a sister named Mathilde ("Till"). He studied music early in life with Ferdinand Hiller, a composer and pianist. Hiller was a friend of Robert Schumann, who dedicated his Piano Concerto in A minor to him. The Bohemian composer and pianist Ignaz Moscheles noticed Bruch’s talent.
At age nine, Bruch wrote his first piece of music, a song for his mother’s birthday. After that, he focused on music as his main interest. His parents supported his studies. His early works included motets, psalms, piano pieces, violin sonatas, a string quartet, and orchestral music, such as the prelude for an opera called Joan of Arc. Most of these early works are no longer available.
Bruch’s first music theory lesson took place in 1849 in Bonn. His teacher was Professor Heinrich Carl Breidenstein, a friend of his father. At this time, Bruch lived at an estate in Bergisch Gladbach, where he wrote much of his music. The estate belonged to an attorney named Neissen, who lived there with his unmarried sister. Later, the estate was purchased by the Zanders family, who owned a large paper mill. In later years, Maria Zanders became a friend and supporter of Bruch.
Bruch’s father taught him French and English conversation. His father was very wealthy.
Career
After studying philosophy and art for a short time in Bonn (1859), Bruch worked for many years as a teacher, conductor, and composer. He held musical positions in several cities in Germany: Mannheim (1862–1864), Koblenz (1865–1867), Sondershausen (1867–1870), Berlin (1870–1872), and Bonn, where he worked privately from 1873 to 1878. During his most successful years, he led the Liverpool Philharmonic Society for three seasons (1880–1883).
He taught composition at the Berlin Hochschule für Musik from 1890 until he retired in 1910. He taught many famous students, such as the Italian composer Ottorino Respighi, the American pianist Rudolph Reuter, and the German pianist, composer, and writer Clara Mathilda Faisst (1872–1948). See: List of music students by teacher: A to B#Max Bruch.
Personal life and final years
Max Bruch married Clara Tuczek, a singer he met during a tour in Berlin, on January 3, 1881. Clara was likely born on February 15, 1854, making her 26 years old at the time of the marriage; some sources claim she was 16. She came from a musical family, and her sister was composer Felicia Tuczek. The couple returned to Liverpool, where Bruch served as conductor of the Liverpool Philharmonic Society from 1880 to 1883. They lived in the Sefton Park area. Their daughter, Margaretha, who later became a well-known author and advocate for her father’s life and works, was born in Liverpool in 1882. Their first son, Max Felix Bruch, was born on May 31, 1884, in Breslau and showed early talent for music. They had two additional sons, Hans and Ewald. Of the four children, only Max Jr. and Ewald married, but neither had children of their own. Bruch’s direct family line ended with Ewald’s death in 1974.
Death
Bruch died in his home in Berlin-Friedenau in 1920. He was buried next to his wife Clara, who had died on August 26, 1919, in the Old St. Matthäus churchyard in Berlin-Schöneberg. Margaretha Bruch later carved the words "Music is the language of God" on the gravestone.
Works
Max Bruch's complex and well-organized works in the German Romantic musical tradition placed him in the group of composers who followed the style of Johannes Brahms, rather than the opposing "New Music" of Franz Liszt and Richard Wagner. During his lifetime, Bruch was most famous for his choral music, though he often felt overshadowed by his friend Brahms, who was more popular and widely admired.
Today, as during his lifetime, Bruch's Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor, Op. 26 (1866), remains one of the most popular Romantic violin concertos. It uses techniques from Felix Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto in E minor, such as connecting movements and avoiding the traditional orchestral introduction found in earlier concertos. Joseph Joachim, a violinist, helped Bruch develop the concerto, and Joachim's changes led to the final published version. Despite these changes to the traditional Romantic style, Bruch was often seen as a conservative composer.
Two other widely performed works by Bruch are also for solo string instrument and orchestra: the Scottish Fantasy for violin and orchestra, which includes an arrangement of the tune "Hey Tuttie Tatie" from Robert Burns's song "Scots Wha Hae"; and the Kol Nidrei, Op. 47, for cello and orchestra (subtitled "Adagio on Hebrew Melodies for Violoncello and Orchestra"). This piece begins and ends with the cello playing the Kol Nidre ("All Vows…") chant from the Jewish Yom Kippur service. This work may have inspired Ernest Bloch's Schelomo, a later piece with a similar Jewish theme and structure.
The popularity of Kol Nidrei led many to believe Bruch had Jewish ancestry, though he denied this, and no evidence supports this claim. Bruch's middle name was Christian, and he was raised Protestant. He once made an antisemitic comment after Germany's defeat in World War I. During the Nazi Party's rule (1933–1945), Bruch's music was restricted because he was labeled a "possible Jew" for writing music with Jewish themes. As a result, his music was largely forgotten in German-speaking countries.
Bruch is not well known for chamber music, though his "Eight Pieces for Clarinet, Viola, and Piano" are occasionally performed. These were written for his son, Max, a clarinetist, similar to how Brahms and Weber composed for specific musicians. Bruch also wrote a septet and two string quartets that resemble Robert Schumann's quartets in tone and intensity. His second piano quintet was composed while he was conductor of the Liverpool Philharmonic Society. Though written for amateurs, it was completed only after Bruch left Liverpool and was persuaded to finish the final movement.
Sir Donald Tovey noted that Bruch's greatest skill was in writing for chorus and orchestra. He praised Bruch's work Odysseus: Scenes from The Odyssey, Op. 41, for chorus, soloists, and orchestra, as well as a Kyrie and Sanctus.
In 1918, near the end of his life, Bruch composed two string quintets, one of which became the basis for a string octet written in 1920 for four violins, two violas, a cello, and a double bass. This octet contrasts with the modern styles of composers like Arnold Schönberg and Igor Stravinsky, as Bruch and others aimed to preserve the Romantic tradition. These late works feature a "concertante" style, where the first violin part is central and contains much of the musical interest. By the 1930s, when these works were first performed professionally, Bruch's reputation had declined, and he was only known for his famous concerto.
Bruch's other works include two less well-known violin concertos, No. 2 in D minor (1878) and No. 3 in D minor (1891), which he considered as strong as the first. He also wrote a concerto for clarinet, viola, and orchestra, and many other pieces for violin, viola, or cello with orchestra. His three symphonies feature distinctive German Romantic melodies that are skillfully orchestrated.
In his later years, Bruch composed three orchestral suites. The third suite originated from a tune he heard in Capri, which he later used as the basis for a funeral march. He completed the suite in 1909. The American Sutro sisters, Rose and Ottilie Sutro, asked Bruch to arrange the suite into a double piano concerto for them, which he did in 1912. This concerto was only performed in the Americas and never in its original form. The score was withdrawn in 1917 and rediscovered after Ottilie Sutro's death in 1970. The sisters also played a role in the history of the Violin Concerto No. 1: Bruch sent the manuscript to them to sell in the United States, but they kept it and sold it for their own profit.
Violinists Joseph Joachim and Willy Hess advised Bruch on his violin compositions. Hess premiered some of Bruch's works, including the Concert Piece for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 84, which was written for him.