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The Violin Concerto in D major was composed by Johannes Brahms in 1878 and first performed in Leipzig, Germany. In the Romantic period composers wrote concertos for a range of solo instruments, however, piano and violin were by far the most popular. The soloist was accompanied by a large orchestra whereby elements of melody, harmony and dynamics created highly expressive and dramatic pieces of music.

Violin Concerto in D major

Brahms composed this piece for his friend and renowned violinist, Joseph Joachim. Many critics at the time claimed the music Brahms had written was too difficult as it included rapid broken chords, scales and double stopping.Yet, Brahms knew that Joachim was capable of playing it.

It was intended that a concerto would give the soloist a chance to shine as a virtuoso. This concerto features a cadenza at the end of the first movement, however, Brahms was one of the last composers to permit the soloist to improvise or create their own. Soloists started to create cadenzas that were too long and this led composers to notate their cadenzas. This change allowed composers to have control over the musical material performed.

The concerto is made up of three movements and follows the typical structure of fast-slow-fast. The first movement is much longer than would have been heard in the Classical period. had started to expand the symphonic form to allow time to develop musical ideas. Brahms was inspired by such emerging symphonic drama and adapted it for his violin concerto. He included an orchestral introduction in this work where many of the themes were introduced before the violin solo entered.

The first movement is written in sonata form and as shown in the table, each section has a purpose.

The structure of the last movement is rondo form. This is a structure where a section of music keeps returning, and is similar to how a chorus would be repeated numerous times in a pop song of modern times.