Search - Max Bruch, Richard Hickox, London Symphony Orchestra :: Bruch: Symphony No 1; Violin Concerto No 3 / London SO

Some composers are, unjustly, remembered for a single work in which they got everything spectacularly right: Max Bruch's First Violin Concerto has kept his name alive, but his other concerti, and his symphonies, are fine pieces too little played or recorded. Lydia Morkovitch makes a stunning case for the Third Concerto as a virtuoso piece of real merit and considerable intellectual vigor; like Brahms, Bruch never gave up on the passion of his earlier, wilder work, just channeled it into more classical form. There is a strong family resemblance to the First Concerto, of course. Morkovitch is so at home in this work that one wants to hear her in the other concertos and shorter concertante works. Bruch's Symphonies are less spectacular--Hickox brings out the solid construction and thoughtful orchestration of the First, and provides Morkovitch in the concerto with a smooth accompaniment to bite against. --Roz Kaveney