For more than thirty years Fritz Brun (1878-1959) was chief conductor of the Bern City Orchestra and is often referred to as the last symphonist of the Romantic style. His rich symphonic output is currently undergoing a remarkable renaissance. While the wonderful 1st String Quartet from his Cologne study period was not performed for decades and has now received its premiere recording, the passionate 1st Violin Sonata is considered Brun's most performed work.
FRITZ BRUN was born in Lucerne on August 18, 1878. He studied composition and conducting with Franz Wüllner at the conservatory in Cologne, and after his studies he managed to get by with short-term jobs in Berlin, London and Dortmund before finally returning to his homeland in 1903: first as a piano teacher at the music school in Bern, later as conductor of the symphony concerts of the Bern Music Society and director of the "Cäcilienverein" and the "Berner Liedertafel", he rendered outstanding services to the musical life of Bern; from 1926 to 1940 he was vice-president of the Swiss Music Society Tonkünstlerverein.
Now, two of the composer's early chamber works will be heard together for the first time on album. The beautiful String Quartet, written in Cologne in 1901 and full of longing, speaks of the beauty of his Swiss homeland, and the highly passionate First Violin Sonata, written a few years later in Bern. The String Quartet has not been recorded at all until now. And the Violin Sonata only in a shortened and "lightened" version. The musical "impositions" and enormous technical challenges of the work can thus be fully experienced for the first time. © Prospero Classical