Max Bruch is among the composers who sold their most famous work to a publisher for a small lump sum. His Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor, Op. 26, is now considered one of his most celebrated compositions, alongside the Scottish Fantasy, and is one of the most popular violin concertos in the solo violin repertoire.
The concerto's history began in 1866, when it was first completed. The premiere took place on April 24, 1866, with Otto von Königslow as soloist, and Bruch himself conducting. This premiere, however, was not an unqualified success. Subsequently, the concerto was significantly revised with the help of the celebrated violinist Joseph Joachim and completed in its present form in 1867.
Joachim gave the premiere of the revised version in Bremen on January 7, 1868, under the direction of Karl Martin Rheinthaler. Following this performance, the work established itself in the popular repertoire and has remained there ever since.
The fate of the score took a tragic turn. Bruch sold the entire score to the publisher N. Simrock for a small lump sum, but kept a copy for himself. By the end of the First World War, he was impoverished, as the chaotic global economic situation prevented him from claiming royalties for his other works.
The enormous success of this concerto later became a source of deep dissatisfaction for Bruch, as he was never able to replicate its phenomenal success. Some 40 years after composing the concerto, Bruch wrote angrily to a friend during a stay in Italy that musicians everywhere were ready to perform his first concerto for him, as if he hadn't written any other equally good ones.