Brahms’ Violin Concerto ranks among the best-loved solo concertos for the instrument. But solid as the canon can sometimes seem, it was not always thus. Brahms defied expectations of a merely virtuosic showpiece, and it took a few decades for this work to become established in the repertoire.
Even one of Brahms’ staunchest champions, the conductor Hans von Bülow, is credited with the flippant remark that the Violin Concerto is written not for but “against the violin.” The irony is that Brahms composed this score for one of the greatest virtuosos of his age, his good friend Joseph Joachim. The musicologist-conductor Leon Botstein observes that Brahms here achieves what Joachim, who had written a concerto of his own years before, hoped to accomplish for his instrument: “He wanted to find a way to reconcile the most serious aspirations of instrumental music with the visceral power associated with the display of virtuoso technique.”
The Violin Concerto also provides a fascinating example of Brahms seeking inspiration in past models while at the same time creating something fresh and unknown—a delicate balance between “conservative” and “progressive” tendencies. In 1878, while working on the Second Piano Concerto, Brahms became absorbed by ideas for a concerto for Joachim; the two had been allies for a quarter century. The setting where Brahms composed this work was the same idyllic, alpine-lake region in southern Austria where he had recently completed his Second Symphony.
Both the Second Symphony and the Violin Concerto share the same key (D major). Both display a relatively relaxed attitude toward their models from Beethoven. By now, Brahms was less concerned about competing with his predecessor. The result is a winning mixture of passion, serenity, and playfulness. Brahms’ sole contribution to the genre has some clear points of comparison with Beethoven’s standard-setting Violin Concerto (also in D major), but it simultaneously follows distinctive paths.
Like Beethoven, Brahms generates a dramatic sense of anticipation during the long orchestral introduction to set the stage for the soloist’s entry beginning with powerful exclamations in D minor. The first movement proceeds on a truly grand scale, balancing epic, dramatic, and lyrical aspects. Instead of providing a cadenza, Brahms left this “space” open for Joachim to supply one of his own invention; many violinists have written substitutes.