Max Bruch

Max Bruch was born in Cologne on 6 January 1838 into the height of German Romanticism. A violinist himself, he understood the instrument's possibilities from the inside, and that knowledge shaped his writing. He composed prolifically - more than 200 works across his career, including three violin concertos - and worked as both teacher and conductor. But it was the first concerto that stuck: it entered the standard repertoire and never left, defining his legacy more completely than he might have wished. He died in Berlin on 2 October 1920, decades after that single work had already secured his name.