Joseph Joachim was regarded as one of the greatest violinists of his generation. Born in 1831, he entered the Leipzig Conservatory at the age of twelve, and was guided through his musical education by Mendelssohn. Joachim’s association with Brahms and his sympathy with the classicism of Mendelssohn and Schumann can be clearly heard in the attractively lyrical Violin Concerto No. 3, the last of three such works. Although the Concerto makes strenuous demands of the soloist, it avoids any suggestion of technical brilliance for its own sake.