Max Bruch: Scottish Fantasy, Op. 46. Sublime complete performance, violin with full orchestra

Max Bruch (1838-1920) was a German Romantic composer, violinist, teacher, and conductor who wrote more than 200 works, including three violin concertos, and his popular ‘Scottish Fantasy’ - which is also a composition for violin and orchestra.
Although Bruch visited Scotland for the first time only a year after the premiere of the work, he had access to a collection of Scottish music at Munich Library in 1868. In paying homage to Scottish tradition, the work gives a prominent place to the harp in the instrumental accompaniment to the violin.
It is a four-movement fantasy based on Scottish folk melodies.
I. Introduction: Grave - Adagio cantabile
The first movement is built on ‘Through the Wood Laddie’. This tune also appears at the end of the second and fourth movements.
II. Scherzo: Allegro
The second movement is built around ‘The Dusty Miller’ - a traditional dance melody set in triple time, which comes from the Neal Collection (c. 1726).
III. Andante sostenuto
The third is built around ‘I’m A’ Doun for Lack O’ Johnnie’. This quaint and simple little Scottish song, though not found in print till about the middle of the last century, is traceable in one of its north of Scotland versions to the end of the eighteenth.
IV. Finale: Allegro guerriero
The fourth movement includes a sprightly arrangement of ‘Hey Tuttie Tatie’, the tune in the patriotic anthem ‘Scots Wha Hae’ (with lyrics by Robert Burns).
‘Scots Wha Hae’ (English: Scots Who Have) is a patriotic song of Scotland written using both words of the Scots language and English, which served for centuries as an unofficial national anthem of the country, but has lately been largely supplanted by ‘Scotland the Brave’ and ‘Flower of Scotland’.
The lyrics were written by Robert Burns in 1793, in the form of a speech given by Robert the Bruce before the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314 during the Scottish Wars of Independence. Although the lyrics are by Burns, he wrote them to the traditional Scottish tune ‘Hey Tuttie Tatie’, which according to tradition, was played by Bruce’s army at the Battle of Bannockburn.
This performance is by the virtuoso violinist Ji Young Lim, with the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by David Yi.
To accompany each movement, relevant paintings by Scottish artists have been included to visualise the scenes which Bruch describes in his music.
Horatio McCulloch (1805-1867) was a Scottish landscape painter. During his lifetime McCulloch became the best-known and most successful landscape painter in Scotland. His constant aim was to paint the silence of the Highland wilderness where the wild deer roam with the kind of poetic truthfulness he admired in Wordsworth.
He undertook regular summer sketching tours of the West Highlands, completing the sketches as paintings as back in his studio. These paintings celebrate the romantic scenery of the Highlands and evoke a magnificent sense of scale, emphasing the dramatic grandeur. Horatio McCulloch had by his death in 1867 created the essential iconography of the Highlands.
Bruch’s ‘Scottish Fantasy’ seems to have been inspired by Mendelssohn’s Scottish symphony, which was published some 40 years earlier. This is especially noticeable for the first movement which starts with a somber and reflective melody. Mendelssohn was inspired by his visit to the ruined Holyrood Chapel in Edinburgh and his reflection on the long and turbulent history of Scotland.
To accompany the first movement of Bruch’s composition, the painting by Horatio McCulloch entitled ‘The ruins of Inverlochy Castle’ has been selected.
The ruins of Inverlochy Castle, near Fort William, are clearly reflected in the sweeping stretch of water. The remains of thick walls and rounded towers complement the ridges of the mountains behind, while the smoking chimney of the crofters’ cottage echoes the wisps of cloud enveloping the slopes. The scene’s stillness contrasts markedly with the area’s turbulent past.
Inverlochy Castle was built by the Comyns, lords of Badenoch and Lochaber. The Comyns dominated northern Scotland in the 1200s, and were key supporters of King John Balliol, earning the enmity of Robert the Bruce.
After Robert the Bruce succeeded to the Scottish throne in 1306, he captured and burned the castle the following year. The Comyns were thus dispossessed, and the ruined castle was unoccupied for a time.
In 1431, clansmen of Alexander MacDonald, Lord of the Isles, defeated King James I’s larger army in the first Battle of Inverlochy, fought close by the castle.
The second movement of Bruch’s Scottish Fantasy is based on a popular traditional dance melody and has been illustrated using the painting entitled ‘A Highland Dance’ by David Allan.
The other paintings by Horatio McCulloch included in the video are of landscapes which capture the grandeur of the Scottish Highlands.