A violin concerto is a concerto for solo violin (occasionally, two or more violins) and instrumental ensemble, customarily orchestra. Such works have been written from the Baroque period, when the solo concerto form was first developed, up through the present day. Many major composers have contributed to the violin concerto repertoire, with the best known works including those by Bach, Bartók, Beethoven, Brahms, Bruch, Mendelssohn, Mozart, Sibelius, Tchaikovsky, and Vivaldi.
The Violin Concerto in D major by Johannes Brahms, his opus 77, is one of the best-known of all violin concertos.
The Violin Concerto (Op. 36) by Arnold Schoenberg dates from Schoenberg's time in the United States of America, where he had moved in 1933 to escape the Nazis. The piece was written in 1936, the same year as the String Quartet No. 4. At the time of its completion, Schoenberg was living in Brentwood, California, and had just accepted a post teaching at the University of California, Los Angeles.
The Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 35 by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky is one of the best known of all violin concertos. It is also considered to be among the most technically difficult works for violin.
The Violin Concerto in D minor, opus 47 by Jean Sibelius premiered in 1904 in Helsinki. Sibelius withheld this version from publication and made substantial revisions. The new version premiered in 1905, in Berlin, with Richard Strauss conducting and Karel Halir as soloist (see the FMIC link).
Felix Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto in E Minor, Op. 64, is a famous violin concerto.
The Violin Concerto in B Minor, opus 61, one of Sir Edward Elgar's longest orchestral works, has been described as 'the greatest English contribution to the treasury of Romantic violin concertos'.David Dubal, in The Essential Canon of Classical Music, North Point Press, New York, 2001
The Violin Concerto of William Walton (1902–1983) was written in 1938–39 and reorchestrated in 1943.
Violin Concerto in A minor, Op. 53 is a concerto for violin and orchestra composed by AntonÃn Dvořák in 1879. The concerto was premiered in 1883 by FrantiÅ¡ek OndÅ™ÃÄek in Prague. He also gave the premieres in Vienna and London.
Samuel Barber's violin concerto, Op. 14, is a work in three movements, lasting about 22 minutes, and was completed in 1939.
The Violin Concerto in D major, op. 35, was composed by Erich Wolfgang Korngold in 1945 following some initial persuasion from the violinist and fellow émigré Bronisław Huberman. Dedicated to Alma Mahler, the widow of Korngold's childhood mentor Gustav Mahler, the violin concerto was eventually premiered on February 15, 1947 by Jascha Heifetz, accompanied by the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra and conductor Vladimir Golschmann. Heifetz's performance launched the work into the standard repertoire, which quickly became Korngold's most popular piece.
The Violin Concerto in A minor, Op. 82 by Alexander Glazunov is one of Glazunov's most popular compositions.
Robert Schumann’s only Violin Concerto, in D minor, was one of his last significant compositions, and one that remained unknown to all but a very small circle for more than 80 years after it was written.
Bernard Tan's Violin Concerto was premiered on 7 January 2006 by acclaimed Singaporean violinist Lynnette Seah, with conductor Lan Shui and the Singapore Symphony Orchestra. The soloist received the score almost only two months before the premiere.
Stravinsky's Violin concerto in D was composed in the summer of 1931 in France. The idea of a violin concerto was born in the minds of Stravinsky's music publisher at the time, Willy Strecker of B. Schotts Söhne and violinist Samuel Dushkin.
Gyorgy Ligeti's Violin Concerto was written in 1992 for the violinist Saschko Gawriloff.