Dvořák’s sole Violin Concerto grew out of his relationship with the Hungarian violinist Joseph Joachim. The two first met in May 1878, and Joachim soon became one of the composer’s supporters. (That Brahms and Joachim were close friends certainly helped, as did Dvořák’s own knowledge of the violin, which he had played since his childhood.) Dvořák composed the Concerto for Joachim at Simrock’s suggestion, working at the score between May and September 1879. Dvořák revised the work in early 1880, taking Joachim’s suggestions into account; as the composer wrote to Simrock, “Although I have retained some themes, I have written several new ones. The whole concept of the work is however changed. The harmonization, the orchestration, and the rhythms are new.”

Even with the revisions, Joachim was never happy with the Concerto. He finally returned the score to Dvořák in 1882. The composer revised the work again before its premiere in Prague in October 1883 with the Czech violinist František Ondříček as soloist. Ondříček also introduced the Concerto in Vienna and London, part of the spread of Dvořák’s music across Europe during the 1880s.

The Concerto is in three movements. The opening allegro begins with a forthright statement from the orchestra, answered by a rustic, folk-like motive from the soloist. The movement as a whole unfolds according to sonata-form principles, with a terse but relaxed second subject, followed by the development section launched by the soloist revisiting the movement’s opening material. After a shortened recapitulation of the themes, though, the expected coda never arrives. Instead, Dvořák makes a transition without a break into the adagio, whose manifold beauties alone justify the concerto’s persistence in the repertory. The finale, a dancing rondo, relies on thematic material characterized by the same folk-like energy found in the Slavonic Dances, but the tunes are not borrowed from any folk sources. Rather, they are the creations of a composer completely immersed in the musical traditions of his homeland.

—John Mangum