Max Bruch

Did Max Bruch compose the ultimate one-hit wonder? The question is worth asking given that the German’s First Violin Concerto, unquestionably one of the greatest 19th-century works in the genre, has eclipsed almost every other work he composed. Indeed, its enormous success seems to have become a huge burden. Already aggrieved that he had sold the publishing rights of the concerto for the measly sum of 350 thalers (around £4,000 in today’s money), Bruch even began to resent its very existence.

‘Nothing can equal the laziness, stupidity and dullness of many violinists,’ wrote Bruch

Several times his frustrations rose to boiling point. For example, in a letter written to a colleague in 1887, he declared, ‘Nothing can equal the laziness, stupidity and dullness of many German violinists; every fortnight one of them turns up and wants to play the First Concerto for me; I have grown uncouth and have told them: