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 wr...