By all rights, we ought to be sick and tired of Max Bruch's Violin Concerto No. 1, a piece played with great frequency by violin soloists across the globe, not to mention its presence in countless recordings and in the repertoire of most advanced violin students. Certainly the composer was tired of it - the concerto's success overshadowed nearly all of his other compositions.
But more than 150 years after its highly successful premiere by Joseph Joachim in Bremen, Germany, it remains one of the greatest hits of classical music. Dutch violinist