Brahms: Violin Concerto

After a longish excursion into French, Russian and English romantic and twentieth century repertoire, the Brahms Violin Concerto returns us to the German symphonic tradition.


The concerto was written with the help of Joseph Joachim – violin virtuoso, composer and a close friend of Brahms – who ensured that the solo part lay well on the instrument, wrote the cadenzas and gave the work its first performance on 1st January 1879. Joachim was one of the first of the great 19th century instrumentalists to make recordings: below you can hear his performance of Brahms’ first Hungarian Dance.

We will be using the Jascha Heifetz/Fritz Reiner/Chicago Symphony recording from 1955. Here (I can't find any credits for the orchestra and conductor) is Heifetz playing the concerto’s Allegro giocoso finale:

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