MAX BRUCH

Violin Concerto, Romance

Concerto No.1 in G minor for Violin and Orchestra, Op.26;

Romance in F major, Op.85 (orig. for viola and orchestra);

String Quintet in A minor, Op. posth. (1918)

Vadim Gluzman (violin)

Sandis Šteinbergs (violin),

Maxim Rysanov (viola);

Ilze Klava (viola),

Reinis Birznieks (cello)

Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra / Andrew Litton

Following on from his recordings of the concertos by Tchaikovsky (‘without doubt one of the work's finest recordings in recent years’, BBC Music Magazine), Barber and Korngold, The virtuosic violinist Vadim Gluzman here performs a giant of the violin repertoire: Max Bruch’s Violin Concerto No.1

Throughout his 82-year life, Bruch remained true to the musical ideals of his youth, formed by Schubert, Mendelssohn, Schumann and German folk songs. His Violin Concerto No. 1 was a spectacular success from its first performance in 1868, and soon won over audiences both in Germany and abroad.

Gluzman also performs the violin version of the Romance in F major, Op.85, composed by Bruch for viola and orchestra. The composer also made an arrangement for violin and piano, and it is this violin part which Gluzman performs to the original orchestral score.

Closing the programme is the String Quintet in A minor in which Gluzman is joined by four eminent string players: Sandis Šteinbergs, Maxim Rysanov, Ilze Klava and Reinis Birznieks. Composed in 1918, the youthful energy, dramatic instinct and playful exuberance of the quintet equally belies the fact that it was composed by a man in his eightieth year.

Gluzman is supported by the eminent Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra and its music director Andrew Litton.

BIS Records SACD BISSACD1852