Composed: 1887
Premiered: 1887, Cologne
Duration: 32 minutes

Brahms described the Double Concerto to his publisher as “my last folly,” and it did in fact turn out to be his last orchestral work. There is some suggestion that a fifth symphony, probably in A Minor, was at the back of his mind, and that some of its ideas found their way into this Concerto, as well as into the Trio for Clarinet, Cello and Piano in the same key. They share a certain grittiness, a feature this key had in the minds of some composers.

Brahms felt that he did not have as thorough an understanding of strings as he did of the piano. Accordingly, he had enlisted the help of his friend, the great violinist Joseph Joachim, in the composition of his Violin Concerto. He did the same for the Double Concerto. The friendship of Brahms and Joachim had fallen apart several years earlier, when Brahms sided with Joachim’s wife in the dispute which led to their divorce. Now they reached some degree of reconciliation, and Joachim helped in restructuring the solo parts to increase their brilliance and make them more playable.

The Concerto turned out to be more cerebral and less lyrical than most of Brahms’s earlier works. It has been suggested that the cragginess of some of its melodies reflects the stupendous Alpine scenery of the Bernese Oberland, visible from the windows of the room where it was composed. The Double Concerto had its premiere with Joachim, the cellist Hausmann, and the spa orchestra at Baden-Baden.

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