Brahms: Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 77

Brahms composed his Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 77 in 1878 and dedicated to his friend, the violinist Joseph Joachim. It is Brahms' only violin concerto, and, according to Joachim, one of the four great German violin concerti: The Germans have four violin concertos. The greatest, most uncompromising is Beethoven's. The one by Brahms vies with it in seriousness. The richest, the most seductive, was written by Max Bruch. But the most inward, the heart's jewel, is Mendelssohn's.

The technical demands on the soloist are formidable, with generous use of multiple stopping, broken chords, rapid scale passages, and rhythmic variation. The difficulty may to some extent be attributed to the composer's being chiefly a pianist. At least Brahms chose the violin-friendly key of D major for his concerto!