Johannes Brahms (1833 - 1897) composed the Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 77, in 1878 and dedicated it to his friend, the violinist Joseph Joachim. 

Ida Haendel (born 1928) picked up her sister’s violin at the age of three. Major competition wins paved the way for success. Performing the Beethoven Violin Concerto, she won the Warsaw Conservatory's Gold Medal and the first Huberman Prize in 1933. At the age of seven she competed against towering virtuosos (David Oistrakh and Ginette Neveu) to become a laureate of the first Henryk Wieniawski Violin Competition in 1935. Ida Haendel plays the 1726 “Sleeping Beauty” Stradivarius.

The "golden age" of recordings was from 1955 to 1965, at the beginning of the LP and the stereo era, where pure vacuum tube amplification helped produce recordings demonstrating unparalleled fidelity and warmth, lifelike presence and illumination.

This Testament Records LP, revived from the EMI-Columbia catalogue, was remastered at EMI's Abbey Road Studios in London, using pure analogue components only, from the original studio tapes through to the cutting head, and was pressed at Pallas.