Julia Fischer & Yakov Kreizberg - Tchaikovsky: Violin Concerto in D, Op. 35

…From HP's SUPER SACD list:
"…in the opening movement, her reading is enough to make a grown man, if not weep, then remember precious things lost. Again there is that soulful quality, her seeming ability to intuitively read what was going on beneath the surface of the music…for that first movement alone and the golden burnish of the Pentatone sound, you'll not pry this disc out of my clutches." – Harry Pearson, The Absolute Sound, March 2007

The solo violin did not occupy a central position within the oeuvre of Peter Tchaikovsky (1840-1893). He was himself a pianist, and composed three piano concertos, as well as chamber music, operas and ballets. That probably explains why he composed no more than one violin concerto. That composition came at a very depressing time in Tchaikovsky's life, while he was dealing with the disappointment of a failing marriage. If one looks at the narrow window of time during which the works for solo violin were composed, i.e. between 1875 to 1878, one realizes that these compositions must have formed an outlet for certain feelings during a personal crisis. Yearning and melancholy dominate in this music, which however also demonstrates the composer's ambition with regard to the technical level of the Violin Concerto and the Valse – Scherzo. At least in the case of his Violin Concerto, Tchaikovsky successfully met the challenge of writing music for the violin which would survive the test of time.