Page 726 - Liverpool Philharmonic 22-23 Season Coverage Book
P. 726
Brahms: Violin Concerto
We've already come across Joseph Joachim, above, as the man who helped bring
Beethoven's previously neglected Violin Concerto back into the limelight. The
Hungarian virtuoso also played a key role in another big-hitting German violin
work: Brahms's only concerto for the instrument.
Brahms had promised Joachim a showcase concerto for many years. It finally took
the success of the composer's Second Symphony for him to get around to finishing a
work for violin and orchestra. But it was worth the wait.
Like the symphony on whose heels it followed, Brahms's Violin Concerto is
essentially an emotional and lyrical work, with moments of profound beauty – like the
beautiful, sighing theme that interrupts the spikier sections of the opening movement
at regular intervals.
Recommended recording: Jack Liebeck (violin), BBC Symphony Orchestra /
Andrew Gourlay (Orchid Classics). Read our review here.
