(Cologne, 6 January 1838 - Friedenau, 2 October 1920)
After receiving an excellent musical education in Germany's most important musical centers, he carried out teacher and conductor activities, establishing himself after 1870 in Berlin without abandoning the directorial activity, which brought him to England, America, and Russia for some years. Finally, since 1891, he was a teacher at the Hochschule of Berlin, acquiring considerable fame in teaching: here he had, among others, as a pupil Ottorino Respighi.
He reached considerable renown to life, above all, with his choral works: today, he is also known almost exclusively for the concert in Sol Minor for violin and orchestra, one of the very few of his compositions that are still preserved in the repertoire.
His music is characteristic of the late German romanticism and, in many places, reveals the influence of Brahms, of which the Bruch was a friend and great admirer. However, it retains easy communication, and in the best pages, it is characterized by a fresh and spontaneous momentum that allows it to be considered among the most typical fruits of the last period of the previous century.
Bruch's production is very vast: in addition to the three concerts for violin and orchestra, some theatrical works, three symphonies, many pieces for choir and orchestra, for solo voices, choir and orchestra, and for chapel choir, as well as various pieces, must be remembered. By instrument alone and orchestra (like Kol Nidrei for cello and Romance for violin) and a lot of chamber music.
It is curious that from all the vast production of Bruch, it remained today in the repertoire almost exclusively a composition that, like this concert for violin, was composed when the author was only twenty -eight: a sign that the maturity and the next experience did not particularly enrich His inspiration, which in this work is loved and supported by a youthful and fresh vigor. Dedicated to the great violinist Joseph Joachim (1831-1907), a very admired performer by all the German romantic composers of the second half of the nineteenth century -Brahms in the lead -, this work is affected by the influence of Brahms and Mendelssohn. Indeed, it cannot claim to be considered on the same level as the most famous violin and orchestra concerts of the last century. Despite this, it is a pleasant work, without dramatic contrasts, hinged on a fluent melodic discursiveness in which the solo instrument performs now eminently sung tasks, now elegantly virtuosity.
The first half is entitled "Prelude," perhaps because of the free character of his beginning (with the cadences of the solo violin, similar to what happens in the fifth concert of Piano and Orchestra of Beethoven) and for its almost radiant performance.
The short "prelude" directly leads to the "adagio," where the violin hovers in a delicate and expressive song, also rich in ugly virtuous passages, until the "final" acts for a real highlight of the concert, with its slender themes, its vigorous and full of melodic ideas, as well as full of resources for the soloist who finds a way to show off all his qualities of sound, arc technique, and agility.
