The recomposing of Mr. Bruch

Synopsis

It might seem odd to think of Max Bruch as a 20th-century composer. After all, his three greatest hits — his Violin Concerto No. 1, his Scottish Fantasy for violin and orchestra, and his setting of the Hebraic liturgical chant Kol Nidrei for cello and orchestra — were all written in the 19th century.

But this archetypal German Romantic composer, who was born in 1838, lived to the ripe old age of 82, and kept producing new works up to the time of his death in 1920.

One of these, a Concerto for Two Pianos, was commissioned by an American duo piano team, Ottilie and Rose Suttro, who premiered it with Leopold Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra on today’s date in 1916. The new work was well-received and its composer praised.

But there is a somewhat ironic historical footnote to this successful premiere: It appears the Suttro Duo drastically revised and even rewrote parts of Bruch’s score for their 1916 performance, unbeknown to the composer. It wouldn’t be until 1971 that the concerto was performed as he had actually written it.

Music Played in Today's Program

Max Bruch (1838-1920) Concerto for Two Pianos; Güher and Süher Pekinel, pianos; Philharmonia Orchestra; Neville Marriner, cond. Chandos 9711

On This Day

Births

• 1850 - Spanish composer Tomás Bretón, in Salamanca;

• 1876 - Spanish composer, cellist and conductor Pablo Casals, in Vendrell, Catalonia;

• 1912 - Australian composer Peggy Glanville-Hicks, in Melbourne;

Deaths

• 1785 - German composer Johann Heinrich Rolle, in Magdeburg, age 69;

• 1900 - Russian composer Vassili Sergeievitch Kalinnikov (Gregorian date: Jan. 11, 1901);

Premieres

• 1733 - Porpora: opera "Arianna in Nasso" (Ariadne on Naxos) opens the first London season of "The Opera of the Nobility," a company formed to rival Handel's "Royal Academy"; This date is according to the Julian "Old Style" calendar still in use in England that year; Under the Gregorian "New Style" calendar in use today, this premiere actually occurred 11 days later, on Jan. 9, 1734;

• 1882 - Brahms: Piano Trio No. 2 in C, Op. 87, and String Quintet No. 1 in F, Op. 88, in Frankfurt, with a violinist named Heermann and a cellist name Müller, with Brahms at the pianist; Brahms had completed the work during his summer holiday in Bad Ischl (near Salzburg), and had participated in a reading of the new work at a private home in Bad Ischl; On that occasion, as a joke, Brahms introducing the trio as having been composed by his friend, the composer and pianist Ignaz Brull, who was also in Bad Ischl at the time;

• 1893 - Debussy: String Quartet, in Paris, by the Ysaye Quartet;

• 1906 - Sibelius: tone poem, "Pohjola's Daughter," in St. Petersburg, Russia;

• 1916 - Max Bruch: Concerto for two pianos and orchestra, by the Philadelphia Orchestra, Leopold Stokowski conducting, with duo-pianists Rose and Ottilie Sultro;

Others

• 1903 - First concert by the Seattle Symphony at Christensen's Hall in Seattle under the baton of violinist Harry F. West; The program includes music of Massenet, Bruch, Schubert and Rossini;