Leon Botstein

How an Anti-Semitic Composer Created ‘Kol Nidre’ and ‘Moses’

Any performance, much less an American one, of Max Bruch’s oratorio “Moses” from 1895 is a rarity. Yet this is a fabulous and important piece of music. First, however, one fact that no Jew interested in classical music ever seems to want to believe must be mentioned: Bruch was not Jewish. He may have written…