Composed: 1878
Premiered: 1881, Vienna
Duration: 33 minutes

Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto was composed in the spring of 1878 at Clarens, near Geneva on the lake. The composer had just weathered a terrible personal crisis: he was pursued by a young woman, and out of pity and a sense of honour, married her. The result was a disastrous emotional collapse. His doctor, recognizing Tchaikovsky’s homosexuality, instructed him to leave Russia and never to see his wife again. Some of his agony can be heard in his Fourth Symphony, composed about that time.

Life, however, went on. The Violin Concerto is an optimistic piece. In his own words, “If you do not discover joy in yourself, look at others, delight in the merriment of others.” During the composition of the concerto, a brilliant young violinist, Iosif Iosifovitch Kotek, was on hand to try it out as it developed.

Tchaikovsky hoped that Kotek might play its premiere, but decided against it out of concern that it might lead to gossip. Instead, he dedicated it to Leopold Auer, the great violin teacher, again hoping for a performance. As it turned out, neither Kotek nor Auer felt they could cope with its difficulties.

It was eventually performed by Adolf Brodsky in Vienna in December 1881. The famous critic Eduard Hanslick was there. He was noted for his invective, and this time he outdid himself: “The violin is no longer played, but torn apart, pounded black and blue … Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto brings us face to face with the revolting thought, may there not exist musical compositions that we can hear stink?” Among the audience, however, applause drowned out the booing.

Auer learned it in due course, and taught it to his students, who included most of the great violinists of the early part of the 20th century. They performed it all over the world. It has been a standard part of the repertoire ever since. Its technical difficulties are still formidable, but every concert violinist has learned to master them.

Program note by the late Dr. C.W. Helleiner