BRUCH, MAX (1838-192o), German composer, son of a city official and grandson of the Evangelical cleric, Dr. Christian Bruch, was born at Cologne on Jan. 6, 1838. From his mother (nee Almenrader), a well-known musician of her time, he learnt the elements of music, and composition he studied under Breiden stein at Bonn. He was a precocious child, and at 14 produced a symphony. In 1853 he gained the Mozart Stipendium of 400 gulden per annum for four years at Frankfurt-on-Main, where he studied under Hiller, Reinecke and Breuning. From 1858 to 1861 he lived at Cologne, where his first opera (in one act), Scherz, List and Rache, was produced in 1858.
On his father's death, in 1861, Bruch began a tour of study at Berlin, Leipzig, Vienna, Munich, Dresden and Mannheim, where his opera, Lorelei (libretto by Geibel), was brought out in 1863. At Mannheim he lived till 1864, and there he wrote some of his best-known works, including the beautiful Frithjof (Scenen for male voices and orchestra). After a further period of travel he became musical-director at Coblenz (1865-67) and Hofkapell meister at Sondershausen (1867-70), and then lived in Berlin (1871-73), where he wrote his Odysseus, his first violin concerto and two symphonies being composed at Sondershausen. After five years at Bonn (1873-78), during which he paid two visits to England, Bruch, in 1878, became conductor of the Stern Choral Union ; and in 188o of the Liverpool Philharmonic. He remained in England for three years. In 1892 he was appointed director of the composition branch of the Berlin Hochschule. From 1910 onwards he lived in retirement near Berlin, at Friedenau, where he died on Oct. 2, 1920.
Though Bruch himself regarded his works for choir with orches tra as his most important contribution to music, and not without justification, since they are of notable excellence, his popular repu tation rests on his supremely grateful and effective solo works for the violin and the violoncello, and it is probably by these that he will be longest remembered. Among them are the famous violin concerto in G minor (op. 26), which stands second only to Men delssohn's in melodiousness and charm, the Romance for violin and orchestra (op. 42), the Kol Nidrei, variations for violoncello and orchestra (op. 47), and the Conzertstiick, for violin and orchestra (op. 84).