Klaus Mäkelä
Daniel Lozakovich Johannes Brahms

Johannes Brahms' Double Concerto for violin, cello, and orchestra from 1887 resulted from one of the 19th century's most fruitful musical friendships. Brahms was 20 years old when he met the Hungarian violinist, Joseph Joachim, two years his senior, during a tour in 1853. Joachim was already Europe's big star on his instrument, while Brahms was about to have his breakthrough as an innovative piano composer. Over the next few years, they developed a close friendship, and Joachim became an important advisor when Brahms began writing orchestral music.

Their mutual friend Robert Schumann proclaimed the young Brahms a kind of successor to Beethoven. This clingy embrace reinforced Brahms's tendencies towards performance anxiety and self-criticism. He began a symphony in 1854 that was gradually reworked into a piano concerto. Beyond the 1860s, he had success with smaller orchestral works, particularly his Hungarian Dances. Yet he said as late as 1872 that he would never write a symphony. Eventually, he overcame his doubts, and in 1876 Symphony No. 1 was played for the first time in Karlsruhe.

On New Year's Day 1879, the friends experienced their greatest triumph when Joachim premiered Brahms's Violin Concerto in D major in Leipzig. Three years later, the friendship broke down: Joachim was to divorce because he thought his wife was unfaithful. Brahms disagreed and wrote an understanding letter to Joachim's wife - which she used in the divorce proceedings. When Brahms wrote his Double Concerto in the summer of 1887, it was like an outstretched hand to his old friend. And Joachim accepted the hand: He played the violin part at the first performance and got the manuscript for free.