A concert featuring both a violin and a cello, accompanied by the orchestra. Brahms wrote it for cellist Robert Hausmann and violinist Joseph Joachim in 1887. It premiered the same year. Even though it was performed multiple times during the next months, it wasn’t received favourably.
That perception changed over the years. It is now the most popular work in that combination. Okay, that might be easy, for there are not many made. And it is not the first time, nor will it be the last, that a work was not popular from the start.
Joachim was a friend of Brahms, but the two had drift apart a bit. Joachim divorced from his wife, the singer Amalie. He accused her of adultery, and Brahms defended her. One can imagine that did not sit well with the violinist. So probably as a reconciliation gift, Brahms did the concert, and Joachim accepted.
The record is an outstanding performance of a beautiful work.