Max Bruch Biography

A German romantic composer and conductor, Max Bruch is notably famous for his violin concertos that
feature among his 200 plus works! Read this captivating biography to know about his profile, childhood,
life and timeline.

Quick Facts
Famous as Romantic Composer and Conductor
Nationality German
Born on 06 January 1838 AD
Zodiac Sign Capricorn
Born in Cologne, Germany
Died on 02 October 1920 AD
Place of death Friedenau, Berlin, Germany
Spouse Clara Tuczek
Works & Achievements Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor

Max Karl August Bruch, a.k.a. Max Christian Friedrich Bruch, was a very prominent German romantic
composer and conductor who wrote around 200 works, which also consisted of his three masterpieces in
the form of violin concertos of which ‘Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor’ become a major success and
significant part of the violin repertoire. His status reflected through his concerts and his remarkable
oratorios made him a celebrity of his time in Europe and America. Bruch passionately promoted the
values of traditional and folk music and strongly opposed the principles of the 'Neudeutsche'
composition school. This is the reason why one would find a strong impression of folk songs in his

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melodies and harmonies. He always refrained from dark and over-serious compositions and popularized
lucid forms, harmonious tunes and splendor of sound. His maiden opera, ‘Scherz, List und Rache’ was
performed in 1858. Through his promising and satisfying career, Bruch held many conducting positions
and even taught for 20 years at the Berlin Academy. His other note-worthy and striking choral pieces
include Odysseus (1872) and Das Lied von der Glocke (1879).

Childhood And Early Life

Born in Cologne, Rhine Province, Max Bruch showed early signs of a great composer and conductor.
His mother was a soprano and singing teacher and was the primary source of sowing the seeds of
Bruch’s musical career. From her, he learnt his first piano lessons. He underwent his first official
musical training under composer and pianist, Ferdinand Hiller to whom Robert Schumann devoted his
piano concerto. Another person who accredited Bruch’s aptitude for music was Ignaz Moscheles. At the
tender age of 9, illustrating an astonishing musical talent, Bruch wrote his first composition. He also
wrote a symphony at the age of 14 and won a scholarship that aided him to study at Cologne. His works
are inclined towards Mendelssohn and Schumann.

Max Bruch’s Works

Bruch's most popular work is undoubtedly his ardently romantic Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor
(1868), a significant piece in the standard violin repertoire. It is inspired from the techniques of Felix
Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto in E minor. This concerto includes the connecting of movements, while
deviating from the routine orchestral exposition and stiff form of former concertos. This singularly
melodic composition is also considered as the zenith of romantic music.

Other Works

Max Bruch’s second most famous work is the mesmerizing ‘Kol Nidrej’, Op. 47, which is the single-
movement piece for orchestra and cello. This piece was inspired by an invocation from the Jewish Yom
Kippur service which reflects the name of this piece. Other popular and widely played pieces consist of
the Scottish Fantasy for violin and orchestra, which comprises of the melody of the tune "Hey Tuttie
Tatie", extensively famous for its application in the song ‘Scots Wha Hae’ by ‘Robert Burns’. Other
feathers to Bruch’s hat include two more concerti for violin and orchestra, No. 2 in D minor and No. 3
in D minor (which Bruch himself considered as at par with the first one) and a Concerto for Orchestra,
Clarinet and Viola. Max Bruch also authored several chamber works, including a set of eight pieces for
piano, viola, clarinet and a string octet. In 1912, for the American duo-pianists Rose and Ottilie Sutro,
Bruch authored the ‘Concerto in A flat minor’ for two pianos and orchestra but instead as an original

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version, it was played in two different versions of the pianists. The score was discarded in 1917 and
came into light only after Ottilie Sutro's death in 1970. The Sutro sisters were treacherous to Bruch as
Bruch had sent the manuscript of the Violin Concerto No. 1 to them to be sold in the United States, but
they sold it for their own advantage and retained the profits.

Personal Life

Max met the young Clara Tuczek during a concert tour in the warm season of 1880 and, despite a huge
age difference, they married in 1881. Clara Tuczek was born on 15 February 1864 in Berlin to an
Austrian musical family. She used to sing occasionally at his concerts and died on 27 august, 1919 in
Berlin. They had four children of which, Margarethe, the eldest and the only daughter, became a writer
and poet influenced by the turbulent years of WWI. The second child and the eldest son, Max Felix, was
the only one who became a musician and worked as a conductor of two amateur choral societies in
Hamburg. Hans, the third one, was a great painter and conducted a promising exhibition in the city. The
yougest son, Ewald, began his career in forestry but due joined the police force after WWI.

Bruch’s Career Progress Throughout Germany

In 1858, as a music teacher in Cologne, Bruch authored his first opera, ‘Scherz, List und Rache’.
During 1861 to 1872, Bruch earned the reputation of a distinguished German composer. He then worked
privately in Bonn during 1873 and 1878 and resumed his position as a conductor in 1881, succeeding
Julius Benedict as conductor of the Liverpool Philharmonic Society in England. Bruch soon left
Liverpool in 1883 and became director of the Breslau (now Wroclaw, Poland) Orchesterverein, where he
stayed through the end of the season in 1890. That year, he accepted lectureship of composition at the
Berlin Hochschule für Musik, working there until his retirement in 1910 and maintaining his position as
a professor till he died in 1920. To summarize, Bruch conducted various choral and orchestral societies
at Koblenz (1865), Sondershausen (1867), Berlin (1878), Liverpool (1880–83), and Breslau (1883–90).
He also worked as a professor at the Berlin Academy of Arts from 1890 to 1911.

Death And Legacy

Bruch expired in his house in Friedenau, Berlin. All through his promising musical career he became
famous not only as a composer of choral works but also for a handful of marvelous orchestral
compositions. His works, being structural and complex, were categorized under the group of Romantic
classicism instead of the group that encouraged “New Music”. The music of this choral composer was

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 diverse in nature, showing a methodical mastery in counterpoint, harmony and instrumentation. Today,
he is remembered especially for his first violin concerto (1868); two further outstanding violin
concertos, the cello variations Kol Nidrei (1881), and extraordinary operas and symphonies.

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