I attended a concert at the Jemison Concert Hall. The performance consisted of two pieces that were both met with enthusiastic applause and praise. The first piece that was performed was the Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 35, by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The piece was written Clarens, a Swiss resort on the shores of Lake Geneva, where Tchaikovsky had gone to recover from the depression brought on by his disastrous marriage to Antonina Miliukova. The piece was divided into three movements with Allegro moderato being first. The concert opened with the orchestra playing crescendo until the soloist presented the themes. At that point, the texture heard from the full orchestra varied between the monophony of the solo violin and the homophony. The melody introduced by the violin was repeated in various instruments with large contrasts in dynamics and tempo, with allegro being the dominating tempo. The highest point of the first movement occurred when the soloist produced an extremely high pitch in pianissimo and slowed down to a static pace. The movement ended with a strong beat played in fortissimo by the entire orchestra. The next movement began in the woodwinds with a legato melody punctuated by one note played by the horns. This movement remained somber with periods of excitement, indicated by the orchestra playing at an active pace. The violins contributed by adding descending scales of pizzicato notes. The melody then became a legato solo, which commenced in the oboe and was passed to the basses. The solo returned to the violin, starting adagio and then increased the pace for the orchestra. The finale occurred when two accelerating crescendos alternated with two ritardando decrescendos. After hearing the two different pieces of work, I was able to comprehend the talents of both pieces. There were no breaks or pauses between the second and third movements. I am now able to distinguish between the different tempos and dynamics of the pieces. Attending this concert made me more aware of the diversity of style and compositional techniques inherent in Tchaikovsky's music. The performance at the most took about 35 minutes. I feel like when Tchaikovsky wrote this concerto, he likely knew that only a few people on the planet, at any given time, could play it well - as well as this. It's an amazing feat of composition, let alone playing it!