Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Max Bruch (1838-1920), the German composer best known for his Violin Concerto in G minor, was in his day, a famous conductor and teacher as well as a prolific composer; yet he has been sadly neglected, perhaps in comparison to his contemporary Brahms. In this book - the only full-length study of Bruch - the author provides a richly documented account of Bruch's career as music director and composer, including a spell with the Liverpool Philharmonic Society from 1880-1883, and as a teacher at the Royal Academy of Arts in Berlin from 1892 until his retirement in 1911, where Vaughan Williams was one his pupils; he paints a picture of a proud and sensitive man, whose talents were perhaps left behind at a time of rapid musical development. The book also offers a musical analysis of his one hundred published works, including three operas. CHRISTOPHER FIFIELD is foremost a conductor, but also a writer on music history (Grove, DNB, Viking Opera Guide, Oxford Companion to Music/), the author of a biography of Hans Richter, the editor of the letters and diaries of Kathleen Ferrier, and a recent history of the music agents Ibbs and Tillett.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

A sober and thorough account of Bruch's long life, including much information from documents and privately owned personal letters unearthed by Fifield. Indeed, the generous quotations from Bruch's own words are a chief attraction of the book, which is also useful as to plots and texts of Bruch's many operatic and choral pieces, works long absent from the active repertoire. Fifield offers far less, however, when it comes to Bruch's musical style; what analytic comments there are rarely move beyond the evident morphology of the music. By instinct, training, and personal associations Bruch was an unyielding conservative; his essentially melodic gift, his idealistic commitment to a folk basis for composition, and his predilection for massive choral works on classical subjects hardly endeared him to the influential German progressives who surrounded him. Worse yet, the very great popularity of his early violin concerto overshadowed much of his later music, and the disgruntled Bruch found himself labeled a "one-work composer." He has been largely neglected by serious scholars, and Fifield's new book is the only one in English on this secondary but by no means second-rate composer. Both general and academic readership, upper-division undergraduate onwards. -C. Isaac, Austin College