Known in the 1930s as the composer of flamboyant, outsized symphonies, Havergal Brian wrote in the same decade a violin concerto of normal proportions (in the ranks of longish ones at a bit over half an hour), scored for an orchestra that was not unusually large, except for its extra percussion. Nevertheless, it is an unconventional work in structure and requires the audience to put in some effort in listening commensurate with the demands it placed on the soloist.

Actually, Brian had to write the work twice. He completed the work in draft (in short score, the last step before orchestration) on June 7, 1934. The next day he went to London by train and on arrival discovered that his briefcase, containing the concerto, had been lost or stolen. Advertisements and searches of lost-property offices were fruitless. So he set to work again, composing a completely new concerto using the themes and other ideas he could remember. He completed the full score on June 8, 1935, exactly a year after he lost the first draft. He initially called the new version "Violin Concerto No. 2," but since only one concerto existed, he eventually titled it simply Violin Concerto in C Major. Even after this ordeal, Brian had to wait a long time to hear the work played. It was premiered by Ralph Holmes in 1969.

The work is in the standard three-movement concerto form. Brian is rather conservative in this work as to use of key centers; it is much more apt to remain in or near its main key than are the composer's symphonies. The themes are also warm-hearted and romantic. The work's most conventional aspect is its handling of the balance between soloist and orchestra. The orchestral scoring calls for triple woodwinds, full brass, harp, percussion, and strings. This is not at all a radical size for a symphony of the era, but it is rather heavy for a concerto. Brian requires the violinist to fight the orchestra throughout, and the violin part is technically difficult as well. The work is full of details that compel admiration on the part of the attentive listener. One innovative feature is the second-movement passacaglia, some twelve years or so before Shostakovich used the same form in the slow movement of his first violin concerto.

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