Bruch, M.:Songs for Mixed Choir, Vol. 2

ORCHESTRAL WORKS

VIOLIN CONCERT 2/SUITE FOR ORG

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THE COMPLETE WORKS FOR VIOLONC

Founded at the Musik Akademie der Stadt Basel, Switzerland, Philon Trio is a chamber ensemble consisting of David Dias da Silva on clarinet, Adam Newman on viola, and Camilla Köhnken on piano. It’s in the context of a residency at Canada’s Banff Center for Arts and Creativity in Alberta that they recorded the excellent work 8 Pieces, Op. 83 by the German composer Max Bruch. Bruch was 72 in 1910 when he composed Acht Stucke Op. 83 for his son, Max Felix, already a professional clarinetist. Written in a late but conservative Romantic style, far removed from the language of Bruch’s contemporaries Stravinsky, Bartók, and Schoenberg, this work is deep, intense, passionate and intimate.

Nathan Milstein Collection, Vol. 1 (Live)

Classical Music

Supported by the eminent Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin and conductor Okko Kamu, acclaimed veteran BIS-recording violinist Ulf Wallin offers a three-work, three-decade span of a program of Max Bruch music – the Second Violin Concerto (1877), In Memoriam (1893) and the Konzertstück (1910). Bruch (1838-1920) remained deeply rooted in 19th c. Romanticism until the end of his life, influenced by his youthful musical surroundings, including the music of Mendelssohn, Chopin and Beethoven. Mr. Wallin is noted for the intensity of his playing, whether solo, chamber or orchestral works.

Schubert, Tchaikovsky, Bruch Maxim Rysanov Maxim Rysanov Plays Schubert, Tchaikovsky, Bruch

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Classical Music

Classical Music

100 years ago the composer Max Bruch died. His remarkably long life of 82 years covered a period in contemporary history that was determined by scientific progress and comprehensive industrialization, developments that also found expression in art. Shortly after the turn of the century the scandals concerning the compositions by Igor Stravinsky and Arnold Schoenberg were already rocking the musical world, however, Bruch met the tide of events as stoically as a rock: conservative, patriotic and above all unconditionally beholden to Romanticism in music. The present program was recorded during a Max Bruch Jubilee Concert in Halle and focused besides the famous Suite on Russian Themes also on the rarely performed Concerto for 2 pianos and orchestra.

REVIEWS:

This fine disc presents two Bruch rarities, composed towards the end of his life, both of which started out in other guises. The five-movement Suite on Russian Themes is an adaptation (with new material added) of his Songs and Dances Op. 79, originally for violin and piano. It is remarkable (even for a composer in his mid-60s) that music of such Mendelssohnian deftness and sparkle could have emerged during the first decade of the last century. But putting aside issues of chronology, those who delight in the charming rusticity of, say, the Scottish Fantasy, should find these well-crafted miniatures enchanting.

-- BBC Music Magazine