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Violinists and critics sometimes speak of the “Big Five” violin concertos, a list that typically consists of the celebrated works in the form by Beethoven, Brahms, Bruch, Mendelssohn and Tchaikovsky. According to the League of American Orchestras, two of these concertos, including Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto, rank among the 25 most performed works by its members.
With violinist Hilary Hahn as soloist, Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto will open the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s 2026-27 season on Sept. 17-19 under Petr Popelka. (Hahn served as the CSO’s artist-in-residence for three seasons, 2021-2024.)
But this lineup of top concertos is not hard and fast. Some versions of the list, for example, substitute Sibelius’ Violin Concerto for the one by Beethoven. But inexact or not, the “Big Five” is nonetheless a starting point in establishing the foundational concertos for the instrument, ones that virtually all major classical violinists perform regularly.
While Vadim Gluzman, who will serve as soloist for the CSO’s concerts Nov. 19-21 of Sergei Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 2, acknowledges that those works are perhaps the most often performed, he still objects to the concept of such a list. “It’s just way, way, and I mean way too narrow,” he said.
“And this is not in any way shape or form to take away from the aforementioned five. Of course, these are absolute, ultimate masterworks, but there is so much great music [in this form]. If you ask me as a violinist, musician and performer to make such a short list, it’s just not possible. To make it down to five, I refuse.”
As he is quick to point out, many other concertos are also frequently performed and admired. In January 2026, for example, BBC Music Magazine magazine offered its picks for the best violin concertos of all time. The top 10, in addition to the traditional “Big Five,” included Sibelius’ Violin Concerto, J.S. Bach’s Violin Concerto in A Minor, Dmitri Shostakovich’s Concerto No. 1, Béla Bartók’s Violin Concerto No. 2 and Alban Berg’s Violin Concerto.
Gluzman can’t understand why Shostakovich’s Violin Concerto No. 2 (1967) is not performed more often. “I wholeheartedly believe that this is just as much a magnificent masterwork as No. 1 and yet it is not programmed or played as often as it should be,” he said. In no way does he want to knock the No. 1, which he performed with the CSO in February 2025, noting that violinists and listeners are particularly drawn to the work’s “brilliance and virtuosity” of the final movement. “But the Second Concerto is just as mind-blowing, powerful and effective as No. 1,” he said.
Gluzman, who’s based in Northbrook, also wishes that Leonard Bernstein’s Serenade (after Plato’s Symposium) (1954) was more frequently programmed. He called the five-movement piece for violin, strings and percussion an “absolute masterwork” with “phenomenal writing” throughout. “It’s sensational,” he said.
In recent decades, among the works for the combination that have gained the most in popularity, at least in the United States, is Samuel Barber’s Violin Concerto, Op. 14, which the CSO last performed in September 2024. (It’s No. 18 on the BBC Music Magazine’s list.) The American composer completed the work in 1940 and revised it eight years later, with the definitive version receiving its premiere in 1949 with violinist Ruth Posselt and the Boston Symphony.
Despite its initial success, the concerto almost disappeared for a while. Its comeback got an important boost in 1994 through Gil Shaham’s fine recording with conductor André Previn and the London Symphony Orchestra. “It’s a gorgeous piece of music,” Gluzman said.
But as some concertos have gained recognition, others have fallen out of favor. As examples, Guzman points to the Violin Concerto No. 2 by the famed Polish violinist Henryk Wieniawski, which the composer premiered in 1862 with conductor Anton Rubinstein, and Karl Goldmark’s Violin Concerto No. 1 (1877). In addition, the Korngold Concerto, ranked 13th on the BBC Music list, has gone through ups and downs. “There was a time when it was extremely popular and then went out of fashion and then came back,” Gluzman said. (Soloist Augustin Hadelich and the CSO will showcase Korngold’s work on April 2-3, 2027.)
The Prokofiev No. 2 has enjoyed what Gluzman called a “steady life” since its premiere, never becoming super popular, but never falling into obscurity, either. “It is a glorious piece of music,” he said. “I think it is slightly more popular than the No. 1, simply because it is more brilliant, and it is a full-size piece, whereas No. 1 is a bit shorter and may be a little more problematic to program.”
He described the No. 2 as a piece in which both performers and listeners have to be very involved. “He [Prokofiev] is at his best in this kaleidoscopic writing, where the character changes every 17 seconds without warning,“ Gluzman said. ”You really have to be jumping onto the car to catch the train. It’s an exhilarating piece, it really is.”
Gluzman notes that the composer wrote it in 1935 at the same time as he was working on his ballet, Romeo and Juliet; the violinist is convinced that some of the unused material from the ballet made its way into the concerto, especially the second movement, which sounds like a balletic pas de deux.
Among more contemporary violin concertos, Gluzman lauds a few, including Distant Light (1996-97) by Latvian composer Pēteris Vasks, 80, who writes in a style sometimes dubbed “mystic minimalism” or “spritural minimalism.” “He is one of the most profound voices today, and I’m touring his concerto this season,” Gluzman said. “It’s a masterwork, an absolutely stunning piece.”
Estonian composer Erkki-Sven Tüür, who spent part of his life as a rock musician in the Soviet Union, wrote his violin concerto, Conversations with the Unknown, for Gluzman, who premiered it in 2023 with the Oregon Symphony. “It’s both confusing in a way, but at the same time, it’s the most introverted, expansive, brilliant work I’ve ever come across,” Gluzman said. “You’re constantly in a state of inner mediation, but you’re standing against a humongous orchestra. It’s an incredible feeling — a very emotional work.”
The CSO’s 2026-27 season will feature two contemporary violin concertos, including May 13-16 dates spotlighting Finnish composer Magnus Lindberg’s Violin Concerto No. 1. The work was commissioned by the Mostly Mozart Festival, which premiered it in August 2006 with Lisa Batiashvili as soloist, a role she will reprise with the CSO. On Oct. 15-17, violinist Anne Akiko Meyers will perform Arturo Marquez’s mariachi-inspired concerto Fandango, which she premiered in 2021 with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and music director Gustavo Dudamel. She and the L.A. Phil made a live recording of Fandango in 2022 that won two Latin Grammys: best classical album and best classical contemporary album.
Since the work’s debut, Meyers has gone on to perform it with more than 15 orchestras worldwide. “It’s so rare for a brand-new concerto that was just born in 2021 to be performed over 40 times now, and there are many more opportunities where people want to hear that concerto because the music is amazing,” she said in an interview for the Colorado Music Festival in 2025.
Coming back to the “Big Five,” Gluzman stresses that he loves all those concertos, but he just wants orchestras to balance them with other worthy selections in the form. “We should play Mendelssohn. We should play Sibelius. They are what they are for a reason. Mendelssohn is a perfect concerto. It really is.”
Soloist Isabelle Faust will join the CSO on March 11-14 for Beethoven’s Violin Concerto. The milestone 1806 work influenced many subsequent works in the form, including the Mendelssohn Concerto, which premiered 39 years later. There are several unconventional aspects of the latter work, including “ricochet bowing,” a cadenza placed in the middle of the first movement (instead of the end, as is customary) and a conclusion to that same section that consists of a solo sustained B on the bassoon that serves as a bridge to the second movement.
“There’s a singing quality to the Mendelssohn concerto that is really charming,” Hahn told St. Louis Magazine in 2023. “It’s also emotionally wrenching. Playing inside of the layers of emotional and rhythmic momentum is what’s really engrossing for me about this concerto. A lot of people learn it while they’re still students, so it’s a piece that travels with violinists throughout their lives.”
Violin concertos scheduled for 2026/27
Sept. 17-19: Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto, Petr Popelka, conductor, Hilary Hahn, violin
Oct. 15-17: Marquez’s Fandango, Giancarlo Guerrero, conductor, Anne Akiko Meyers, violin
Nov. 19-21: Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 2, Jaap van Zweden, conductor, Vadim Gluzman, violin
Feb. 19-21: Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 3, Karina Canellakis, conductor, Randall Goosby, violin
March 11-14: Beethoven’s Violin Concerto, Maxim Emelyanychev, conductor, Isabelle Faust, violin
April 2-3: Korngold’s Violin Concerto, Philippe Jordan, conductor, Augustin Hadelich, violin
April 22-24: Richard Strauss’ Violin Concerto, Jane Glover, conductor, Robert Chen, violin
May 13, 15-16: Lindberg’s Violin Concerto No. 1, Klaus Mäkelä, conductor, Lisa Batiashvili, violin
