frustrating because there is so much more music in the drama that remains largely unheard. The only Studio recording available was made in East Germany as long ago as 1974, but fortunately it boasts a Strong cast with Jessye Norman, Rita Hunter, Nicolai Gedda and Tom Krause, and the Staatskapelle Dresden conducted by Marek Janowski. Listening to the complete opera reveals its powerful influence on the young Richard Wagner: it is hard to see how Wagner could have composed Lohengrin without the earlier example of Euryanthe. Indeed, it is Euryanthe that arguably demonstrates greater consistency through the whole score, with its musical quality remaining of the highest order throughout. Hopefully, as we approach Euryanthe’s bicentenary in 2023, an imaginative director can be inspired to unlock its secrets once again. Timothy Dowling, March 2018 Max Bruch (1838-1920) Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor, Opus 26 (1866, revised 1867) 1. Vorspiel (Allegro moderato) - 2. Adagio - 3. Finale (Allegro energico) For five years this work topped Classic FM’s Hall of Farne and it remains Bruch’s most populär work, indeed the only work by which he is widely known, other than his shorter Kol Nidrei for cello and orchestra (1881). Despite its appearance of having been composed in the white-heat of inspiration, Bruch’s Concerto had a difficult gestation and he revised it thoroughly after its first performance in 1866 with advice from the greatest Violinist of the nineteenth Century, Josef Joachim. After some six re-writes (accordinq to Bruch himself), the Version we know today was premiered in early 1868. Like Mendelssohn’s Concerto the soloist opens Bruch’s Concerto, but this first movement is unusually titled ‘Vorspiel’ (Prelude) and it has a sense of constant anticipation, as if it is an introduction ratherthan the Concerto’s main centre of gravity. Thus Bruch’s structure does not follow the classic example of Beethoven’s Violin Concerto, as Brahms was to do just a decade later. After the rather restless opening theme we are transported to a radiant episode in the relative major key (B flat). An orchestral tutti passage then leads to a mini-cadenza section and the soloist exchanges questions and answers (or perhaps more questions) with the woodwind. This leads directly to the central Adagio movement of the Concerto in a warm E flat major, surely the slowly beating heart of this work. The Adagio is based on three inspired themes that combine together very effectively at its climax before drawing to a peaceful close. However, not a full close, because the Finale clearly needs to follow directly, as its ‘opening’ in E flat major carries on the tonality of the Adagio before moving back to the Concerto’s home key of G, with a lively Hungarian dance-type tune in the major key. This alternates with a glorious second theme which could have Elgar’s nobilmente inscribed as its marking in the score. But there is no Elgarian lingering here and Bruch rushes headlong towards an exultant ending.
