Famous Violin Music: the Concertos and Solos to Hear First
The most famous violin music includes Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons (1725), Bach’s Chaconne for solo violin, Paganini’s 24 Caprices and the great violin concertos by Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Bruch, Brahms, Tchaikovsky and Sibelius. A violin concerto is a piece for a solo violin and orchestra, usually in three movements: fast, slow, fast.
Works in the UK and the US. This version uses UK music words (bar, crotchet, stave); the US version uses measure, quarter note and staff. · US version of this page
Updated · By the Classfern Music Department
Key facts
- The violin has four strings tuned in fifths: G3, D4, A4 and E5, and a range of nearly four octaves upward from G3.
- Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E minor was first played on 13 March 1845 in Leipzig, with Ferdinand David as soloist.
- Bruch’s Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor: revised version first played on 7 January 1868 in Bremen by Joseph Joachim.
- Tchaikovsky wrote his Violin Concerto in D major at Clarens, Switzerland, in 1878.
- Sibelius’s Violin Concerto in D minor was first played in 1904 and in its revised form in Berlin on 19 October 1905.
- Pizzicato means plucking the strings; arco means playing with the bow.
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Quiz: famous violin music
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What is the most famous violin music?
Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons, Bach’s Chaconne, Paganini’s Caprice No. 24 and the violin concertos of Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Bruch, Brahms, Tchaikovsky and Sibelius are the pieces most often named. The table lists 12 to hear first.
| Piece | Composer | Date | Type | Listen for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Four Seasons, Op. 8 Nos. 1–4 | Antonio Vivaldi (1678–1741) | Published 1725 | Four concertos | Birdsong in “Spring”, a summer storm, a hunt in “Autumn”, chattering teeth in “Winter” |
| Partita No. 2 in D minor, BWV 1004: Chaconne | Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750) | About 1720 | Solo violin | Chords and several melodic lines played on one violin (double stops) |
| Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 61 | Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827) | First played 1806 | Concerto | The soft repeated drum beats (timpani) at the very start |
| 24 Caprices, Op. 1 | Niccolò Paganini (1782–1840) | Published 1820 | Solo violin | No. 24 in A minor: a theme and 11 variations, including left-hand pizzicato |
| Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 64 | Felix Mendelssohn (1809–1847) | First played 1845 | Concerto | The violin enters almost at once; the three movements run on without a break |
| Introduction and Rondo capriccioso, Op. 28 | Camille Saint-Saëns (1835–1921) | Written 1863 | Violin and orchestra | A slow, sad opening, then a dazzling Spanish-flavoured dance |
| Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor, Op. 26 | Max Bruch (1838–1920) | Revised version first played 1868 | Concerto | The singing slow movement (Adagio) |
| Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 77 | Johannes Brahms (1833–1897) | First played 1879 | Concerto | A gentle oboe solo opens the slow movement before the violin enters |
| Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 35 | Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840–1893) | Written 1878 | Concerto | The quiet Canzonetta in G minor, then a fast, folk-dance finale |
| Méditation from the opera Thaïs | Jules Massenet (1842–1912) | First performed 1894 | Violin solo with orchestra | A slow, singing melody played between two scenes of the opera |
| Csárdás | Vittorio Monti (1868–1922) | About 1904 | Violin and piano (often orchestra) | Starts slow and grand, then races faster and faster |
| Violin Concerto in D minor, Op. 47 | Jean Sibelius (1865–1957) | 1904, revised 1905 | Concerto | The violin’s lonely opening over shimmering muted strings |
What is a violin concerto?
A violin concerto is a piece for a solo violin accompanied by an orchestra. Most have three movements, fast–slow–fast, and give the soloist a cadenza: a showy passage played alone.
Mendelssohn’s concerto is a good first one: the violin starts almost straight away and the three movements are joined, so it plays straight through. Bruch’s G minor concerto is famous for its slow movement, and Tchaikovsky’s for its fiery finale. The Four Seasons are earlier, Baroque concertos: shorter, with a small string orchestra and harpsichord.
What does a violin sound like?
A violin sounds bright, clear and singing, and it is the highest of the violin family. It can sound sweet and smooth with the bow, short and crisp when plucked, and warmer with vibrato, the small rocking of the finger that makes the pitch wave slightly.
- Arco: with the bow – long, singing notes.
- Pizzicato: plucked – short and light.
- Double stops: two strings at once, as in Bach’s Chaconne.
- Harmonics: touching a string lightly gives a high, whistling note.
- Con sordino: with a mute on the bridge – softer and veiled.
Try the open strings above, then compare the bowed and plucked versions.
What is a violin solo?
A violin solo is music, or a passage, played by one violin. Some solos have no accompaniment at all, like Bach’s Partitas and Paganini’s Caprices; others are accompanied by a piano or an orchestra.
In an orchestra, “violin solo” in the music means the leader (concertmaster) plays a passage alone, as in Massenet’s Méditation or Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade.
Can I play these pieces to my class?
The music itself is out of copyright for every composer here, except that the Sibelius concerto stays in copyright in the UK and EU until the end of 2027. Recordings have their own copyright, so play them through a service or licence your school already has.
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Printable listening log
Use it with any piece on this page. Self-assessed
| Piece and composer | Bowed, plucked or both? | Fast or slow? | One thing I noticed |
|---|---|---|---|
This guide is part of Classfern’s free music department on lessonplanner.info. To play the violin yourself, open the violin play-along and finger chart; for its bigger cousin, see the viola guide and tuning notes.
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