Max Bruch - by Christopher Fifield (Paperback)

About the Book

In this book - the only full-length study of the composer - the author provides a richly documented account of Bruch's career as music director and composer.

Book Synopsis

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.

Review Quotes

Bruch deserves a full-scale study and this is what he and his music gets...This is the work on Bruch but its merit lies not only in being the only book but in the detail, pacing and presentation of Bruch's life. The humanising communicative faculty that Mr Fifield brings to bear lifts the book from mere gap-filling as does its evident determination to lift Bruch from the slough of one-work composers. In all these ways the book and its author bears the laurels of victory.-- "MUSIC WEB INTERNATIONAL"

Richly documented account of Bruch's career.-- "TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT"

The return of Fifield's excellent biography to the ranks of books in print is very welcome indeed.-- "H-NET REVIEWS"