When it comes to classical music generally and violin concertos specifically, some pieces take their time to grab your attention. Others, however, seize you instantly.

Today, we’re looking at examples of the latter: works that offer something especially fresh or gripping or memorable within the first few minutes…or even first few notes.

Of course, every ranking like this is wholly subjective. But in the interest of sparking conversation and debate, we’ve listed the works in reverse order, with our pick for best opening of a violin concerto ever coming in at number one.

See if you agree with our ranking:

8. Mozart Violin Concerto No. 5

At first listen, Mozart’s fifth violin concerto starts off conventionally enough.

Its bright introduction calls to mind a witty comic opera overture. It gives every indication that we’re about to hear a perfectly pleasant, unobjectionable classical era concerto.

But then…

Ninety seconds in, the orchestra drops out, and the violin enters. With no warning, the tempo shifts from a bustling allegro to a soulful adagio, and for two long notes, the violinist plays alone. Time seems to stop.

Then, six measures later, the soloist pulls the orchestra into a bustling allegro, and the movement gets started in earnest.

The way that Mozart plays with our expectations like this makes this opening one of the best violin concerto openings ever written.

7. Prokofiev Violin Concerto No. 1

The beginning of Prokofiev’s first violin concerto sounds like something out of a dark fairy tale: it’s both romantic and ruthless.

The soloist starts the work by unspooling a long, silvery melody. Underneath, violas play soft tremolo notes marked sognando (“like a dream”) in the score.

The resulting opening – yearning, tender, unsettled, balletic – is incredibly haunting, especially given how it contrasts with all the spiky virtuosity yet to come.

6. Berg Violin Concerto

Alban Berg’s violin concerto begins with the simplest possible introduction, one that violin students have been playing since time immemorial: the four notes of the violin’s four strings, G, D, A, E, followed by E, A, D, G.

For violinists, the sequence triggers an immediate emotional response. These are the notes we hear at the start of every practice session and every concert. They are the beginning of a violinist’s experience of music. What a brilliant idea to make them the beginning of a concerto, too.

5. Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto

The orchestral opening of Tchaikovsky’s violin concerto starts off prim, proper, and completely buttoned-up.

But then, twenty seconds in, the cellos and basses start providing a propulsive rhythm in repeated eighth notes: our first indication that we might be in for a work more effusive than it initially seemed.

After an emphatic statement from the orchestra, the violin enters with an elegant introduction before tossing off one of the most memorable melodies in the repertoire: somehow simultaneously romantic, wistful, joyful, yearning, gossipy, giddy, dizzy.

This is music that seems to be constantly asking itself, am I too over-the-top? without ever really caring too much what the answer is.

4. Mendelssohn Violin Concerto

When it comes to the Mendelssohn violin concerto, there’s no prologue, no preamble: the soloist just starts off with one of the most famous melodies ever written.

In 1844, when this piece was written, it was standard practice for an orchestra to state the concerto’s themes. Then, later, a soloist would restate those themes and interact with them.

Mendelssohn, however, ignored that tradition completely, and it works. It makes the music feel more urgent and creates a fast bond between the soloist and listeners.

It also gives the soloist no time to adjust to being onstage, providing one of the great musical tests. Even today, listening to the introduction of the Mendelssohn concerto is one of the fastest ways to assess a soloist’s abilities.

3. Beethoven Violin Concerto

This concerto famously begins with five solo timpani taps, with the last accompanying the woodwinds as they take up the concerto’s pastoral first theme.

In the early nineteenth century, this was a shocking way to start a concerto…especially one for an instrument as melodic as the violin.

The rhythm of those five unaccompanied notes at the beginning resonates through the entire first movement. It feels like a cross between a military march and a heartbeat: powerful and intimidating, yet also deeply human.

The three-minute orchestral introduction that follows is massive. When the solo violin finally does enter, it comes in with a set of exposed broken octaves, requiring a bulletproof technique to pull off perfectly.

2. Korngold Violin Concerto

Erich Wolfgang Korngold, a composer best known for his Hollywood soundtracks, wastes no time when it comes to kicking off the solo part of his 1945 violin concerto.

The solo violin enters almost immediately with a soaring, heart-on-sleeve melody lifted directly from one of his film scores.

Somehow it manages to be both schmaltzy and utterly sincere.

By the time the first big orchestral tutti comes, it feels like Korngold has taken off in an airplane, in a thrilling flight that immediately calls to mind all the glitz, glamour, and sparkle of the Golden Age of Hollywood. This is music that completely sweeps you off your feet.

1. Sibelius Violin Concerto

There is no other opening in the repertoire quite like the Sibelius violin concerto: icy, elegant, aloof, with hints of carefully restrained Finnish passion.

The opening solo line blooms hypnotically out of hushed strings. It then unwinds around a plaintive clarinet and other woodwinds, with rumbling timpani sounding like distant thunder.

Sibelius paces the buildup over the movement in such a way that eventually the solo part evolves into a searing confession. But that emotional journey wouldn’t work without this quiet, haunting, unforgettable opening.

Closing Thoughts

So those are our picks! What do you think? What’s your favourite violin concerto opening of all time?

For more of the best in classical music, sign up for our E-Newsletter