Brahms composed his only violin concerto for a friend of his, Joseph Joachim, one of the greatest violinists of the nineteenth century. Written in the summer and early autumn of 1878 in Pörschbach by Lake Wörth, the concerto received its world premiére in Leipzig on New Year’s Day in 1879, with the composer conducting and Joachim playing solo violin.

Brahms had originally planned a four-movement work but later discarded the idea as being the form of symphonies. In its final form the Violin Concerto is in three movements, withthe moderately fastsonata-form opening movement in its focal point, occupying over a half of the entire work. The second movement, a poetic Adagio, begins with one of the most famous oboe solos in music history, and the third is a dance-like rondo-finale.
Brahms relied heavily on Joachim in developing the final form of the concerto, and in particular the violin solo. Accordingly, the technical difficulty of the solo gives an idea of the exceptional skills of the violinist. Brahms asked Joachim to write or improvise the great cadenza of the first movement. Since its first performance, numerous great violinists from Fritz Kreisler and Leopold Auer to Nigel Kennedy have written their own cadenzas; however, it is Joachim’s original cadenza that is performed most often.