Bruch Romanze in F major, Op. 85
Max Christian Friedrich Bruch was born at Cologne, Germany on 6 January 1838 and died in Friedenau, Berlin Germany on 2 October 1920. The F-major Romanze for viola and orchestra, op. 85, belongs to a group of works composed between 1909 and 1911 for specific performers who were close to Bruch in various ways. Other works written during this period featuring a prominent viola part include the Eight Pieces for clarinet, viola and piano, op. 83, and the Double Concerto for clarinet, viola and orchestra, op. 88. The dedicatee of the Romanze was the French violist Maurice Vieux (1884-1951), who also gave the public premier the work. The Romanze had its first hearing, however, on 25 April 1911 in a private concert given by Bruch’s conducting student Leo Schrattenholtz and his orchestral society with Willy Hess (a violinist/violist who was the dedicatee of Bruch’s Concert Piece for violin, op. 84) playing the solo viola part. This piece was first published in 1911 by B. Schott’s Söhne, Mainz, in full score, as orchestral material, in a reduction for viola and piano prepared by the composer himself, and in Bruch’s own arrangement for violin and piano. The score calls for solo viola, one flute, one oboe, two clarinets, two bassoons, three horns, two trumpets, timpani and strings. This evening’s performance employs Bruch’s own piano reduction.
Like his contemporary Johannes Brahms, Bruch belonged to a school of composition that looked to expand genres established by Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven such as the concerto (for example his very famous Concerto No. 1 in G minor for violin and orchestra, op. 26) , symphony, and the instrumental romance. The origin of the instrumental romance can be found in vocal ballads expressing extravagant and sentimental tales, and the genre found much popularity in the violin and cello schools of the 19th century. Beethoven wrote two Romanzen for solo violin and orchestra which, according to Grove Music Online, serve as “models of the balance between lyricism and virtuosic display that can be found in later works,” including Bruch’s op. 85 Romanze.
The delineation of lyric and virtuosic writing can be seen quite clearly in the classic ABA ternary structure that Bruch employs in this work. After a brief two-bar orchestral introduction the solo viola enters with a lyrical theme reminiscent of his Scottish Fantasy, op. 46, for violin and orchestra. Bruch loved to use folk melodies as source material for his compositions, and the character of the first A-section is indeed folk-like, especially the second theme which is stated in double-stops by the solo viola. The B-section begins with the orchestra playing the theme initially stated by the solo line at the beginning of the piece. The solo viola, meanwhile, plays an obligato line above which foreshadows the virtuosic passagework at the heart of the dramatic B-section. The stormy arpeggios and tremolando gradually give way to the lyrical sunlight of the second A-section.
-Program notes by Dr. Daniel Doña