Isabelle Faust goes back to the roots of one of the most famous Romantic concertos, which is also one of the most difficult from a technical point of view: did Hans von Bülow not call it a ‘concerto against the violin’? Born of close collaboration between Brahms and the violinist Joseph Joachim, the work is a fine testimony to friendship – whereas the Sextet op.36 is directly linked to the love affair between the composer and the beautiful Agathe von Siebold.