Rundel Video: Kol Nidrei | Media center

Notes available at:
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Solo für Violoncello und Blasorchester
(Solo Euphonium opt.)

Although Bruch’s oeuvre is extensive and significant, modern listeners are nowadays really only familiar with his Violin Concerto No.1, which belongs to the standard repertoire of all violinists. The overwhelming success of this work led a number of prominent cellists to make repeated demands for a cello concerto as well.

It was the impassioned cello playing of Bruch’s friend Robert Hausmann which finally inspired him to write his “Kol Nidrei” for Cello and Orchestra in 1880. Bruch himself wrote about this work: “This piece is a small counterpart to my “Scottish Fantasy” because, as in that work, a given melodic source is extended in an artistic manner.”

The work is based on two Hebrew melodies which lend it an elegiac and hymn-like character. In the first section Bruch makes use of an old song of atonement sung at the beginning of the most important Jewish feast, Yom Kippur. As a second theme he uses the English-Jewish song “Oh Weep For Those that Wept on Babel’s Stream”, which he presumably learned in the Jewish community during his time in Liverpool. Bruch wrote “Kol Nidrei” in five arrangements for different ensembles, a fact which demonstrates the unusual popularity of the piece.

The warm, dark sound of the cello reflects the extremely solemn, sorrowful and jubilant songs of the synagogue wonderfully. It shows the pathos and the humility in the prayers of the Jewish community.

In the arrangement for cello (opt. euphonium) and wind ensemble by Siegmund Goldhammer this work represents a magnificent addition to symphonic wind literature.


Grade Level GB: 8+
Grade Level USA: 6 (Professional)
Composer: Bruch, Max
Arranger: Goldhammer, Siegmund
Genre: Classic, Classical Transcription, Solo, Solo for Cello
Performance time: 00:11:32
Publisher: Rundel
Size: A4
Info: Full Score + Parts
Rundel Order Number: MVSR2517
Release Date: 2024