Concerto No. 1 Op. 77 in a minor

In 1948, Dmitri Shostakovich completed work on his first Violin Concerto. However, the cultural-political repression of late Stalinism initially prevented a premiere: it was not until 1955, two years after Stalin's death, that dedicatee David Oistrakh finally premiered the concerto with the Leningrad Philharmonic under Yevgeny Mravinsky. The four-part concerto is symphonic in style and characterized by a high level of expressiveness. Particularly noteworthy are the sombre elegy of the first movement (Nocturne), the biting second movement (Scherzo), an extended passacaglia with cadenza and a brilliant burlesque finale. Oistrakh described the cadenza as “a whole sonata for solo violin”. Today, the work is one of the most important violin concertos of the 20th century.