The Violin Concerto No. 2 in C sharp minor, Opus 129, was Dmitri Shostakovich's last concerto. He wrote it in the spring of 1967 as an early 60th birthday present for its dedicatee, David Oistrakh. It was premiered unofficially in Bolshevo, near Moscow, on 13 September 1967, and officially on 26 September by Oistrakh and the Moscow Philharmonic under Kirill Kondrashin in Moscow.
Violin Concerto No. 2 in D minor by the Polish violin virtuoso, Henryk Wieniawski, may have been started in 1856, but the first performance did not take place until November 27, 1862, when he played it in St. Petersburg with Anton Rubinstein conducting. It was published in 1870, inscribed to his dear friend Pablo de Sarasate.
Béla Bartók's Violin Concerto No. 2, BB 117 (written 1937–8) was dedicated to the Hungarian violin virtuoso, Zoltán Székely, who requested the composition, and is a prime example of verbunkos style.
In 1826, Nicolò Paganini composed his second violin concerto in Italy. In his Second Concerto, Paganini holds back on the demonstration of virtuosity, in favour of greater individuality in the melodic style. The third movement of Paganini's Second Concerto owes its nickname "La Campanella" or "La Clochette" to the little bell which Paganini prescribes to presage each recurrence of the rondo theme.
Violin Concerto No. 2 in D Minor "in the Hungarian Manner" was a remarkable Romantic violin concerto written by the great violinist Joseph Joachim (1831-1907). The critic http://www.classicstoday.com/review.asp?ReviewNum=6486 David Hurwitz has called it "the Holy Grail of Romantic violin concertos."