Violin Concerto No. 2 in D minor, Op. 11 "In the Hungarian Style"

Joseph Joachim is remembered today almost entirely as the violinist for whom Brahms wrote his concerto, but Joachim was himself a serious composer, and this vast three-movement work predates the Brahms by nearly two decades. Brahms actually conducted Joachim in several performances of it and reportedly admired the slow movement warmly, while the finale directly inspired Brahms to write his Hungarian Dances. The concerto runs over 45 minutes, which partly explains why it almost never appears in concert: the solo part is technically relentless, and the sheer scale demands a violinist willing to commit to something closer to a symphony than a showpiece.

What to listen for

At the opening of the first movement, the orchestra lays out an extended, symphonic tutti before the solo violin enters not with a grand gesture but quietly, folding into the texture almost as a chamber-music partner rather than a soloist stepping into the spotlight. In the slow middle movement, a long orchestral passage including an oboe solo precedes the violin's entry, and when the violin does return to the main theme, a single cello carries the melody while the soloist weaves elaborate embellishments around it. The finale drives forward in a near-perpetual-motion gypsy style, with the soloist and orchestra tossing rapid figurations back and forth until a new theme in the coda broadens the momentum before the concerto ends in a final headlong rush.

Recommended rendition

Rachel Barton Pine with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra conducted by Carlos Kalmar on Cedille Records has been frequently praised for combining technical mastery with idiomatic Hungarian flavour, and is often cited as the most compelling modern recording of this work.

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