Tchaikovsky only wrote one violin concerto. There’s an interesting love story behind it.

Tchaikovsky fled to a resort by the Lake Geneva to escape from his unfortunate marriage. His composition pupil, the violinist Iosif Kotek joined him…

Another source of anxiety was Kotek, who joined Tchaikovsky’s party later. Writing to Anatoly on 6/18 March, Tchaikovsky implicitly compared the young violinist’s financial dependence on him and others to his own dependence on Mrs. von Meck. “In my heart of hearts I am not exactly angry at him, yet I find it somehow unpleasant that he is growing accustomed to living on other people’s money,” he wrote. “But I shall never dare articulate this to him.” At the same time, Tchaikovsky found himself moved by Kotek’s love for him and valued immensely “his kind heart, his simplicity and naïveté.” The result was yet another little drama: conflicting feelings on Tchaikovsky’s part, Kotek’s realization that his teacher’s affection is “no longer as before,” and, in turn, Tchaikovsky’s annoyance at them both. “I cannot tell him the whole truth,” he explained to Anatoly, “nor do I wish to upset him. In short, there are moments when I am angry at myself and angry at him and the result of all this has been the sulks.” In the next breath, however, he sought to reassure his brother, apparently with sincerity. “But do not pay attention to this, and do not think that he is a burden to me. In the first place, I enjoy making music with him; in the second, he is essential for my violin concerto; in the third, I love him very, very much. He has the kindest and most tender of hearts, and his character is extremely comforting and pleasant.”

Indeed, so relaxed and lighthearted had Tchaikovsky grown in the company of his brother and friends that one day, in a particularly good mood, he decided to “revive the past” as he had not done since his impromptu ballet with Saint-Saëns in 1875 and, as he wrote to Ana-toly, “performed a grand pas de deux with Modest that was favored with loud approval of the spectators, that is, Kotek and Kolya.” Part of the reason for such high spirits was his immersion in a new com-position, the Violin Concerto in D Major, op. 35. Tchaikovsky conceived the idea of a work for violin and orchestra shortly after Kotek’s arrival in Clarens, and he was soon engrossed in the new project. In a little more than two weeks, he completed the sketches for the work, and by the end of the month, with Kotek’s help, the entire concerto was orchestrated. Kotek was soon delighting Tchaikovsky and Modest with his playing of the new work, having busied himself “lovingly” with it. Tchaikovsky even considered dedicating the concerto to his young friend, but decided against it for fear that it might cause gossip. In the end, he dedicated it to the Hungarian violinist Leopold Auer, whose fame he hoped would help promote the concerto.

Alexander Poznansky, Tchaikovsky: The Quest for the Inner Man, p. 296-297 Check it here.

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Itzhak Perlman’s 1979 live recording with the Philadelphia Orchestra is the GOAT version (in my pov):