Undoubtedly the most popular of his works remains the brilliant VIOLIN CONCERTO № 1. It ranks among the famous opuses in the concert genre of the nineteenth century, indicative of the instrumental aesthetics of the Romantic era, with a combination of influential emotionality, drama, beautiful melody and virtuoso mastery. The work acquires its final form, known today, gradually. Bruch’s opera Lorelai had already been staged, and some of his great choral works have been created when the 26-year-old composer began writing the concerto in the summer of 1864 in Mannheim. Although filled with uncertainty, which he shared in a letter to his former teacher Ferdinand Hiller, he continued his work for the next two years in Koblenz, where he headed the local Music Institute. The first time his work was played there, on April 24, 1866, performed by Otto von Koenigslov under the direction of Bruch himself did not satisfy him and he turned for advice to the great violinist Josef Joachim, with whose active assistance the concert was completed a year later. (The role of Joachim in the birth of Brahms’ violin concerto is similar). The premiere of this edition was presented by Josef Joachim, this time under the baton of conductor Carl Martin Reinthaler, on January 5, 1868 in Bremen. Immediately afterwards, the concert was performed at the Lower Rhine Music Festival in Cologne. Bruch dedicated it to Josef Joachim and in his letters he repeatedly emphasized his co-authorship in creating the concert. In 1906, towards the end of his life, Joachim called it one of the four most important German violin concertos, naming Beethoven’s as most indisputable, Brahms’s – the most serious, Mendelssohn’s – the most heartfelt, and Bruch’s concerto – the most attractive one. It really remains one of the favorite masterpieces in the repertoire of every violin virtuoso, from the time of Joseph Joachim and Pablo Sarasate to the present day. In 2000, the concert was elected first in the voting of the listeners of the British radio station Classic FM. In October 2019 in Tales from the Staff, the  BBC Radio 4 broadcast,  the famous violinist Joshua Bell presented the original manuscript for the first time.