Strauss & Bruch With the New York Philharmonic

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Parent Category: Film and the Arts

Category: Reviews

Published on Tuesday, 26 May 2026 13:51

Written by Jack Angstreich

Nikolaj Szeps Znaider performs on violin and conducts the New York Philharmonic at David Geffen Hall. Photo by Chris Lee

At Lincoln Center’s wonderful David Geffen Hall, on the night of Saturday, March 28, I had the privilege to attend a superb concert presented by the New York Philharmonic under the impressive direction of the celebrated violinist, Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider.

The event started strongly with him serving as soloist in a marvelous account of Max Bruch’s terrific Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor, Op. 26, which reached its ultimate form in 1867. James M. Keller, described as “a former New York Philharmonic Program Annotator and the author of Chamber Music: A Listener's Guide, provides some useful background on it:

It was a relatively early work, begun tentatively in 1857 but composed mostly between 1864 and 1866, while Bruch was serving as music director at the court in Koblenz, Germany. Following the concerto's premiere, in April 1866, with Otto von Königslow as soloist, Bruch immediately decided to rework it. 

Bruch was uncertain about titling the piece a concerto and considered calling it a “fantasy” instead. The great virtuoso violinist, Joseph Joachim, replied: 

As to your doubts, I am happy to say that I find the title “concerto” fully justified; for the name “fantasy” the last two movements are actually too completely and symmetrically developed. 

Keller reports that:

when he was asked to characterize the four most famous German concertos in his repertoire — by Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Bruch, and Brahms — he insisted that Bruch's was “the richest and the most seductive.” 

The Allegro moderato Prelude that begins the composition opens somewhat suspensefully with a slow introduction, while an intensifying sense of drama and solemnity pervades the movement’s main body. The ensuing Adagio is melodious and lyrical, even lush at times—it builds to a kind of climax before closing softly. The Allegro energico Finale is ebullient and not infrequently dazzling but with some more serious passages; it concludes triumphantly. Enthusiastic applause elicited a splendid encore featuring Szeps-Znaider: Manuel Ponce’s “Estrellita,” arranged by Jascha Heifetz.

At least equally memorable was a sterling realization of Richard Strauss’s fabulous tone poem, Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks, Op. 28, completed in 1895. A contemporary reviewer, Gustav Schoenaich, in the Neue Musikalische Presse in 1896, pointedly assessed it thus:

Richard Strauss's musical education is profoundly thorough. … We do not know, if the piece had been sent out into the world without the title, whether the name Eulenspiegel would have been attached to it by someone from among the circle of listeners; but [its] fundamental character, oscillating between humor, sarcasm, and irony, radiates from every measure, here and there perhaps even too garishly. The piece is dazzlingly clever, does not break down into its individual parts, captivates the intellect of the listener perhaps more than his sensibility — but with its convincing logic and skillfully measured length it never for a moment leaves him without stimulation. It is eminently amusing.

The second half of the evening was comparable in power, consisting of a stirring version of Edward Elgar’s excellent Variations on an Original Theme, Enigma, Op. 36, which was finished in 1899. The composer stated:

The enigma I will not explain — its “dark saying” must be left unguessed, and I warn you that the apparent connection between the Variations and the Theme is often of the slightest texture; further, through and over the whole set another and larger theme “goes,” but is not played — so the principal Theme never appears, even as in some late dramas — e.g. Maeterlinck's L'Intruse and Les Sept princesses — the chief character is never on the stage.

He also said:

It may be understood that these personages comment or reflect on the original theme & each one attempts a solution of the Enigma, for so the theme is called.

With justice, the musicians received a standing ovation.