Concerto for Violin and Orchestra No. 1 in A minor, Op. 77

Program notes

About the Work

The First Violin Concerto was composed during one of the darkest periods of Shostakovich’s life. He began it in 1947 with the great violinist David Oistrakh in mind as the dedicatee.

But in February 1948, while he was still at work on it, cultural commissar Andrei Zhdanov launched a brutal attack on “formalist” composers, naming Shostakovich, Prokofiev, and others as enemies of the Soviet people. Shostakovich lost his teaching position, and much of his music disappeared from concert programmes.

The finished concerto remained in a drawer for seven years, unpublished and unperformed. Only after Stalin’s death in 1953 and the subsequent “thaw” was the premiere finally possible. On October 29, 1955, Oistrakh performed it with the Leningrad Philharmonic under Yevgeny Mravinsky to overwhelming acclaim.

The concerto is cast in four movements, unusual for the form:

I. Nocturne (Moderato): A brooding, introspective opening in which Oistrakh heard “a suppression of feelings.” The violin’s long-breathed melody unfolds over dark orchestral colors.

II. Scherzo (Allegro): A sardonic, almost grotesque movement filled with bitter humor. Here Shostakovich works in his famous musical signature, the DSCH motif (D-E♭-C-B in German notation).

III. Passacaglia (Andante): The emotional heart of the concerto, a massive set of variations over a repeated bass line. The movement builds to a shattering climax before subsiding into an extended cadenza that serves as a transition to the finale.

IV. Burlesque (Allegro con brio): A fierce, virtuosic finale that bursts in straight after the cadenza.

Listen for: The darkness of the opening Nocturne, which sets the tone for this deeply personal work. In the Scherzo, listen for the DSCH motif (the notes spelling out Shostakovich’s initials in German). The Passacaglia’s grinding bass line and the extended cadenza that follows are among the most demanding passages in the violin repertoire. The finale’s relentless energy drives to a conclusion that is triumphant yet somehow hollow, a characteristic Shostakovich ambiguity.