I. Moderato
II. Adagio
III. Adagio – Allegro

The last concerto of the composer, written in 1967, for the 60th birthday of David Oistrakh in 1968. As from1966 when he had been diagnosed with a serious heart condition, Shostakovich began each new composition in the fear that he might not be able to complete his work before his right arm would become paralysed or his eye-sight would fail him (his vision was deteriorating at a frightening speed). Although the Violin Concerto in C sharp minor is one of the works of this final period with a more relaxed atmosphere, it is not without a basic gloom and spirit of reckoning.