Violin Concerto no. 1 in F-sharp minor, op. 14

Wieniawski completed his First Violin Concerto at eighteen and played the premiere himself in Leipzig on 27 October 1853. He had entered the Paris Conservatoire at eight and left it at eleven with a first prize, and the concerto is written from the inside of that virtuosity: F sharp minor is an awkward key for the instrument, and the solo part uses it deliberately, with tenths, artificial harmonics and long passages in the highest positions. His brother Józef, a pianist, toured with him through these years, the two of them working the concert circuit as a pair.