Violin Concerto in D major, op. 77

Joseph Joachim pressed Brahms for a violin concerto for some twenty-five years before the work was written in 1878, and then intervened over the cadenza, the solo technique and the layout. Brahms had planned four movements, as in his piano concertos, and on Joachim's advice replaced the middle two with one. Joachim played the premiere on 1 January 1879 with the composer conducting. Audiences stayed cool: the piece was unusually long and difficult, and a critic called it a concerto against the violin. Sarasate refused it, unwilling to stand holding a violin while the oboe had the tune. Brahms wrote it during the summer of 1878 at Pörtschach am Wörthersee, the same lakeside town that had produced the Second Symphony the previous summer and in the same key of D major. The score is dedicated to Joachim.