Johannes Brahms: Violin Concerto

When Brahms was fifteen years old his teacher Marxsen concluded his piano training, and the young musician had to start walking in the world by himself. But this did not mean Johannes to abandone his interest in composition and musical arrangements, while he continued to play in the Hamburg breweries —also occasionally in some house of the aristocracy— and to visit the Baumgartner piano house as often as possible in the absence of one of his own where to practice.

He would also go on concert tours, making up a violin and piano duo with one or the other of the two most renowned violinists of the time, Reményi and Joseph Joachim. With the latter he forged over the years a close friendship that, except for some ups and downs, did last a lifetime. A friendship that was likely built on the healthy obstinacy of Joachim so that Brahms would decide to pay a visit to the Schumans in Düsseldorf, that is, the composer Robert Schumann and his beautiful wife and famous pianist, Clara Schumann.

Brahms, c. 1872
(1833 - 1897)

Determined to take a step that could provide great encouragement to his artistic aspirations, after a few days of travel through the Rhine Valley, the young Johannes, aged 20, arrived in Düsseldorf and knocked on the Schumann's door one day in September 1853, a few months before Robert tried to commit suicide throwing himself, precisely, into the waters of the Rhine.

Preceded by several letters from Joachim, the welcome could not have been more friendly and warm, more simple and cordial. That night, Clara and Robert Schumann invited Johannes to dinner, thus beginning one of the most moving and disrupting relationships that has ever been seen between two artists.
But after the suicide attempt, on February 1854, Robert was admitted to a mental asylum, at his own request. Clara, aged 34, stayed alone, in charge of her eight children. She became the only breadwinner for them, through giving concerts and teaching.

Brahms, Clara's consolation
Aware of the attempted suicide and subsequent confinement, Brahms went to Clara to comfort her without asking anything in return. Initially. But the tavern artist, spoiled in his childhood by a ring of fallen women, stumbled here with a feminine soul and figure about which he was completely unaware. Before the kindness and sweetness of Clara, he was able to respond only in stammering tones, with singular signs of affection that until today we could not say if they were or not reciprocated.
For a while, being Robert in the mental institution, Johannes remained with Clara, almost in the role of a homeowner. But the unconfessed idyll would never be resolved, although it lasted more than forty years.

Concerto for violin and orchestra, in D major
Dedicated to his friend, the violinist Joachim, it was composed in the summer of 1878, probably in the Austrian Alps, in the village of Pörschach, where according to Brahms himself "melodies are everywhere and care must be taken not to step on them when walking". It premiered in Leipzig on January 1, 1879, with Brahms conducting and Joachim as the soloist.

Movements
The concerto follows the standard concerto form, with three movements in the pattern quick–slow–quick (the Allegro giocoso being the most popular):

00:00  Allegro non troppo
24:09  Adagio
32:14  Allegro giocoso, ma non troppo vivace — Poco più presto

The rendition is by Hilary Hahn, with Paavo Järvi conducting the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra.

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