Cursed Brandenburg Desert - Berlin
Donald Macleod examines Bruch's final years, spent in Berlin - a place where he felt his talents were underrated. Yet he spent three decades there, working at the Berlin Academy.
Bruch felt that he had never had his due in Berlin, and that on the contrary his music and his talents had been consistently underrated there. His experience of working with orchestras and his treatment by the press - "treated either as a schoolboy or a scoundrel" - as he put it, left him feeling deeply resentful. But he spent his final three decades in the city, and fortunately found a prominent job as Director of Masterclasses for Composition at the Berlin Academy. Donald Macleod examines Bruch's final years.
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Music Played
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Max Bruch
Eight Trio Pieces for clarinet, viola and piano – movement 2
Performer: Ensemble Incanto
- Ebs 6029.
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Max Bruch
Violin Concerto no. 3 in D minor – 1st movement
Performer: Maxim Fedotov (violin), Russian Philharmonic Orchestra, Dmitry Yablonsky (conductor)
- Naxos 8.557793.
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Max Bruch
Double Concerto for Clarinet, Viola and Orchestra - movement 2
Performer: Paul Meyer (clarinet), Gérard Caussé (viola), François-Rene Duchable (piano), Orchestre de l'Opéra de Lyon, Kent Nagano (conductor)
- Erato 2292-45483-2.
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Max Bruch
Octet
Performer: Kodály Quartet, Auer Quartet, Zsolt Fejérvári (double bass)
- NAXOS 8.557270.
Broadcasts
- Fri 11 Mar 201112:00BBC Radio 3
- Fri 11 Mar 201122:00BBC Radio 3
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