Violin Concerto No. 1

Premiere: April 24, 1866, at the Music Institute of Koblenz in Koblenz, Germany

Approximate performance time is 24 minutes

Behind the music

German composer Max Bruch is best remembered for a handful of works — his two Violin Concertos (1866 and 1878), the Scottish Fantasy for Violin and Orchestra (1880), and the Kol Nidre for Cello and Orchestra (1881). Bruch began composition of his First Violin Concerto at the age of nineteen, finally completing the work nine years later. The first performance took place on April 24, 1866, at a concert of the Music Institute of Koblenz on the Rhine. Bruch, then Music Director of Koblenz, conducted the Gürzenich Orchestra of Cologne. The Orchestra’s concertmaster, Otto von Königslöw, served as soloist.

Shortly after the premiere, Bruch decided to revise the Concerto. He forwarded the score to the eminent Austro-Hungarian violinist, Joseph Joachim. Due to the improvisatory spirit of the Concerto’s opening movement, Bruch had contemplated renaming the work a “Fantasy.” Joachim disagreed, commenting: “For a fantasy, the last two movements are too completely and symmetrically developed. The different sections are brought together in a beautiful relationship, yet — and this is the principal thing — there is sufficient contrast.”

Bruch followed Joseph Joachim’s counsel. After penning extensive revisions, the composer dedicated the final version of his First Violin Concerto to Joachim, who gave its premiere in Bremen in 1868. In 1906, at his 75th birthday party, Joachim stated: “The Germans have four violin concertos,” and named those by Ludwig van Beethoven, Felix Mendelssohn, Bruch, and Johannes Brahms. While Joachim praised each of these magnificent works, he commented: “Max Bruch wrote the richest and most enchanting of the four.”

While You Listen

• Bruch titles the first movement “Prelude.” It opens with a dramatic exchange between the orchestra and soloist. The soloist introduces both of the movement’s principal melodies, highly contrasting in character.
• A reprise of the opening orchestra-soloist dialogue leads to a brief passage, serving as a bridge to the central slow-tempo movement, which follows without pause. It is based upon a series of two lovely melodies, again both introduced by the soloist.
• The Finale presents an almost continuous series of brilliant technical challenges for the soloist, who concludes the Concerto with a fiery Presto sequence.

Performances