‘In the violin concerto […] I am attracted by the amazing seriousness and profundity of the idea, the true symphonic thinking. There is nothing accidental in the score of the concerto, nothing that is used for its outward effect and is not supported by the inner logic, by the development of the material,’ David Oistrakh wrote six months after the world premi?re (29 October 1955) about the work composed back in 1947–1948. His words are spot on. The work resembles a symphony not only in terms of length and complexity, but also in its four-movement form. Yet the elaboration and compelling polyphony of the movements, as well as the orchestration are chamber-music-like; soloist and orchestra do not ‘contend’ through the alternation of large formal sections, but rather, in a dialogue of equal parties involving the soloist and another instrument or two.

Shostakovich gave separate titles to all of the four movements. The theme played by the cellos and basses in Notturno is evocative of the thickest darkness of night; the solitary monologue of the solo violin strides along with much effort and rises higher as the instruments of higher position gradually enter. The sonority becomes richer, some light glimmers through, but in every turn the sinister beat of the tam-tam strikes fear. The middle section of the ‘demonic’ Scherzo in 3/8 features a folk dance-like theme. The gloomy Passacaglia is extremely rigorously composed music. The 17-bar bass theme is played nine times and Shostakovich has constructed a counterpointing musical fabric of variations employing different instruments each time. The movement is rounded off by a vast and extremely exacting violin cadenza that leads on to the finale without interruption. The soloist has to fight and struggle for the respite that follows in the form of the shrill but not intrusive Burlesque with its light ‘commotion’.