Hans Christian Aavik, Odense Symphony Orchestra & Gemma New - Buch / Tüür: Hans Christian Aavik (2025)

The earliest known appearance of the phrase ‘one-hit wonder’ was in a New York newspaper in 1914. Remarkably, the German Romantic composer Max Bruch was still alive at this time – and although it seems unlikely that he was familiar with the term, it is tempting to apply it to Bruch himself, courtesy of the work that opens his disc. Bruch came in later years to curse the astonishing success and popularity of his First Violin Concerto, completed when he was just 28 years old: none of his considerable later output was to come anywhere near its fame, and he remains principally known to music-lovers today because of this very same piece.

Bruch began his Concerto in the summer of 1864. Buoyed up by critical acclaim of several large-scale choral and orchestral works, he decided to tackle a new genre. It was not easy going: he wrote to a friend in November 1865 that he did not ‘feel sure of my feet on this terrain. Do you not think that it is in fact very audacious to write a Violin Concerto?’ Determined to do the best job he could, and already in touch with several noted violin virtuosi of the day, Bruch organised a run-through with a fine local violinist in Koblenz (where he had recently taken up the job of music director) before sending the manuscript to the renowned soloist Joseph Joachim for his advice. Joachim was one of Johannes Brahms’s closest friends and would eventually premiere Brahms’s own Violin Concerto in 1879. In the meantime, he had already written two of his own – including the so-called ‘Hungarian Concerto’ (Joachim had been born in Hungary) in 1857. …

Hans Christian Aavik, violin
Odense Symphony Orchestra
Gemma New, conductor

TRACKLIST

1. Hans Christian Aavik, Odense Symphony Orchestra & Gemma New - Bruch: Violin Concerto No.1 in G minor, Op.26: Vorspiel. Allegro moderato
2. Hans Christian Aavik, Odense Symphony Orchestra & Gemma New - Bruch: Violin Concerto No.1 in G minor, Op.26: Adagio
3. Hans Christian Aavik, Odense Symphony Orchestra & Gemma New - Bruch: Violin Concerto No.1 in G minor, Op.26: Finale. Allegro energico
4. Hans Christian Aavik, Odense Symphony Orchestra & Gemma New - Tüür: Violin Concerto No.2, Angel’s Share