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Rome, the Bayerischer Rundfunk Orchestra, the Dresden Staatskappelle, the St. Petersburg Philharmonie and the. In America Ms. Fischer has already performed with the Chicago Symphony, the Hollywood Bowl and the San Francisco Symphony. She has also appeared with New York’s Mostly Mozart Festival, the Ravinia Festival and Japan’s Sapporo Festival. In recital Julia Fischer has appeared at Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, the Lucerne Festival, and Paris’ Salle Pleyel as well as in San Francisco and Vancouver. Ms. Fischer’s first DVD - Vivaldi’s Four Seasons - has been released in Autumn 2002 to considerable critical acclaim on the Opus Arte/BBC label. PROGRAM NOTES Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 77 JOHANNES BRAHMS Born May, 7 1833 in Hamburg Died April 3, 1897 in Vienna In 1853, Brahms embarked on a concert tour with the Hungarian Vio linist Eduard Hoffmann (a.k.a. Remenyi). It was during their stop at Göttinger, near Hanover, that Brahms came to meet Joseph Joachim, the virtuoso Violinist - also a composer and conductor - with whom he estab- lished an immediate rapport, flourishing into their long friendship. Joachim proved to be enormously influential in Brahms’ career, as well as in the younger man’s development as a composer. When Brahms wrote his mas- terful Violin Concerto in 1878, he asked his friend for technical advice regarding the solo part. Joachim - for whom the work was composed and to whom it is dedicated - assured Brahms that “...most of the material is playable, but I wouldn’t care to say whether it can be comfortably played in an overheated concert hall until I have played it through to myself without stopping.” Indeed, the violinist provided some invaluable guidance in the form of fingerings and bowings, but ultimately, Brahms adhered to his origi nal ideas. Joachim did also write the cadenza for the first movement, al- though since then, many other violinists have provided their own caden- zas. Joachim introduced Brahms’ Violin Concerto on New Years Day, 1879, at the Leipzig Gewandhaus, with the composer at the podium. The pre- miere of the work was not entirely well received, and the infamous critic Hans von Bülow called it “clumsy and devoid of flexibility,” further describ- ing the work as being “written not for but against the violin.” However, through the dedicated advocacy of Joachim, the concerto soon gained its
