From the Preface: I have always been attracted by the idea of making a version of the Brahms Violin Concerto for piano and orchestra in order to give pianists an equal opportunity to interpret this wonderful music. My sources of inspiration were the piano versions of the violin concertos of Bach and Beethoven written by the composers themselves. It is known that Brahms also prepared arrangements and transcriptions of his own and other composers' works. Out of the conviction that these had their justifications, I hope that Brahms would have cordially accepted my attempt. The question remains as to whether this attempt represents an arrangement or a transcription. My aim was to transfer the violin part to Brahms's piano style, strictly modelling it after the original and without sacrifcing any musical substance. I then added my own cadenza, since no original one has been handed down, trying to imagine how Brahms would have solved this task. The orchestra part has remained unaltered. -Dejan Lazic, 2016