2nd symphony (break)
The 2nd Symphony in F minor, Op. 36 is a symphony by the German composer Max Bruch .
Emergence
Bruch's second symphony was composed in 1870, two years after Bruch's first symphony and - like the first - in Sondershausen . The first work had encouraged Bruch to compose a symphony again. The Second Symphony is dedicated to the violinist Joseph Joachim , who is a friend of Bruch .
To the music
Orchestral line-up
Violins , violas , cellos , double basses , two flutes , two oboes , two clarinets , two bassoons , four horns , two trumpets , three trombones , two timpani
Sentence names
- Allegro appassionato, ma un poco maestoso
- Adagio ma non troppo
- Allegro molto tranquillo
description
The symphony, which is kept calm overall, consists of three movements with the omission of the scherzo ; the existing movements follow the sonata form with two themes per movement.
The first movement has a gloomy mood and thus follows Bruch's concept of “laying the whole symphony on a finale with an extraordinarily mild, reconciling mood”. The second movement, characterized by clarinet , horn and viola , is lyrical in nature. About the finale, held in major and described by Bruch as mild and reconciling, Bruch wrote that "it is entirely against my nature to form such a sentence." In addition, the finale - similar to the First Symphony by Johannes Brahms - is similar to Ludwig van Beethoven's Ninth Symphony .
For the conductor and Bruch biographer Christopher Fifield , the structural monotony of the symphony due to the use of the sonata form in all three movements is a weak point of the work.
effect
The first performance of the symphony took place on September 4, 1870 and was a success. When it was performed on November 24, 1870 in the Leipzig Gewandhaus , at the invitation of Carl Reinecke , the symphony was received negatively. According to Bruch's statement, the people of Leipzig were bothered by the lack of a scherzo, but he wrote to Hermann Levi : "A scherzo didn't fit into the structure of this symphony, so there is none, much to the horror of the people of Leipzig, who definitely want to dance on fresh graves." During the composition he seemed to have planned a few revisions of the work such as the insertion of a "shorter, friendlier movement" between the first and third movements and cuts in the finale; the first two sentences, however, had been to his complete satisfaction.
Hermann Kretzschmar suspected a program in the symphony, but it was so hidden that nobody could find it. Bruch rejected this indignantly to Philipp Spitta : “This time I can swear that non-musical ideas were far removed from me. I only felt music and wrote music, and there is probably nothing else in it than the incessant ups and downs of passions ”.
The failure of the symphony contributed to the fact that Bruch did not compose his Symphony No. 3 in E major op. 51 until 1882.
literature
- Christopher Fifield: Max Bruch - Biography of a Composer , Swiss publishing house, 1990 Zurich, ISBN 3-7263-6616-4 , pp. 111–112
- Harenberg concert guide , Harenberg Kommunikation, Dortmund, 1998, ISBN 3-611-00535-5
- Booklet of the double CD Bruch - The Complete Symphonies , Philips Classics, 1998
Web links
- 2nd Symphony (Bruch) : Sheet music and audio files in the International Music Score Library Project
Individual evidence
- ↑ Christopher Fifield: Max Bruch - Biography of a Composer , Swiss publishing house, 1990 Zurich, ISBN 3-7263-6616-4 , pp. 111–112
- ↑ a b Christopher Fifield: Max Bruch - Biography of a Composer , Swiss publishing house, 1990 Zurich, ISBN 3-7263-6616-4 , p. 111
- ^ Letter to Hermann Levi , November 29, 1870
- ^ Letter to Fritz Simrock , February 26, 1886
- ^ Letter to Philipp Spitta , March 17, 1870