Johannes Brahms

Concerto for Violin D Maj Op 77

Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) wrote his Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 77, in 1878. He composed the work for his longtime friend, famed violinist Joseph Joachim, who premiered it in Leipzig with the Gewandhaussaal on January 1, 1879, Brahms himself conducting. The program also included, at Joachim's insistence, Beethoven's Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 61, on which Brahms modeled his own concerto. While the critical reception of the time was mixed, the audiences at the various early performances received the work well. Most complaints directed at the concerto addressed the role of the solo violin, noting that the soloist does not offer much of the melodic material or include much in the way virtuosic passages, a consequence of looking more towards Beethoven's serious aesthetic rather than Paganini's flashy one. Joachim himself, before a falling out with the composer over personal reasons, included Brahms' concerto among the best German offered, saying: "The Germans have four violin concertos. The greatest, most uncompromising is Beethoven's. The one by Brahms vies with it in seriousness. The richest, the most seductive, was written by Max Bruch. But the most inward, the heart's jewel, is Mendelssohn's." Instrumentation: 2.2.2.2: 4.2.0.0: Timp: Str (9-8-7-6-5 in set): Solo Violin in set.