The Concerto for violin, violoncello and orchestra, Opus 102 was actually the last symphonic composition of JOHANNES BRAHMS. Years before that, cellist Robert Hausmann asked him to write a concerto for violoncello. But the composer’s main reason to undertake a concert piece for these particular solo instruments lay in his desire to resume relations with violinist Joseph Joachim, which had become strained for a reason that had nothing to do with their past artistic collaboration – in the course of Joachim’s divorce proceedings, Brahms took the side of the wife. The work is a token of reconciliation, in which, as scholars have argued, Brahms has identified his voice with the sonority of the violoncello, which „enters” as early as the first bar of the orchestral introduction with a cadenza- recitative followed by a cadenza-dialogue in both instruments that sets the thematic character of the part, states the theses of dramatic development and exposes the
instrumental specifics of the parts and the distribution of roles. After this significant introduction the sonata form proceeds with the thematic exposition in the orchestra. The soloists are involved in its development by providing the driving impulses in the dialogue with each other, in which each solo voice has the opportunity to express its character in tangible bi-timbral layer interacting with individual or mixed voices from the orchestra. A curious detail here is that the second theme, stated in the woodwinds, is reminiscent of the opening Antonio Viotti’s Violin Concerto No. 22, also in A minor which was highly appreciated both by Brahms and Joachim. The beginning of the second movement is equally interesting – it is as if the French horns and then the woodwinds after them set the tone for the two soloists to „sing out” one of the most expressive themes, whose continuation is marked by a subdued and intimate exchange between the two solo instruments. The finale of the concerto is cast in traditional rondo form, with thematicmaterialderivedfrom Hungarian dance tradition.
The work was premiered on 18 October 1887 in Colon with the Gürzenich Orchestra under the baton of the author and with soloists Joseph Joachim and Robert Hausmann. It was met with controversy. Clara Schumann wrote that “…as a composition, the concerto is interesting and witty…, but there is no trace of the fresh, warm spontaneity which is peculiar to so many of his other works.” As for Joachim, he for one believed that the double concerto was more soulful and introvert piece than the concerto for violin.