A violin concerto is a concerto for solo violin (occasionally, two or more violins) and instrumental ensemble (customarily orchestra). Such works have been written since the Baroque period, when the solo concerto form was first developed, up through the present day. Many major composers have contributed to the violin concerto repertoire. Traditionally a three-movement work, the violin concerto has been structured in four movements by a number of modern composers, including Dmitri Shostakovich, Igor Stravinsky, and Alban Berg. In some violin concertos, especially from the Baroque and modern eras, the violin (or group of violins) is accompanied by a chamber ensemble rather than an orchestra—for instance, in Vivaldi's L'estro armonico, originally scored for four violins, two violas, cello, and continuo, and in Allan Pettersson's first concerto, for violin and string quartet.

Métaboles is an orchestral work by Henri Dutilleux, commissioned by the conductor George Szell in 1959 to mark the fortieth anniversary of the Cleveland Orchestra. Métaboles was composed in 1963–64 and was first performed by Szell and the Cleveland Orchestra on 14 January 1965.

The cimbalom (; Hungarian: [ˈt͡simbɒlom]; also cimbal or concert cimbalom) is a type of chordophone composed of a large, trapezoidal box on legs with metal strings stretched across its top and a damping pedal underneath. It was designed and created by V. Josef Schunda in 1874 in Budapest, based on his modifications to the existing hammered dulcimer instruments which were already present in Central and Eastern Europe. Today the instrument is mainly played in Hungary, Slovakia, Moravia, Belarus, Romania, Moldova, and Ukraine. The cimbalom is typically played by striking two sticks, often with cotton-wound tips, against the strings which are on the top of the instrument. The steel treble strings are arranged in groups of 4 and are tuned in unison. The bass strings which are over-spun with copper, are arranged in groups of 3 and are also tuned in unison. The Hornbostel–Sachs musical instrument classification system registers the cimbalom with the number 314.122-4,5.

Sur le même accord (On only one chord) is a piece by the French composer Henri Dutilleux for solo violin and orchestra. It was composed for the violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter, and was premiered by her on 28 April 2002 in London with the London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Kurt Masur. The piece lasts about 10 minutes in performance. Dutilleux describes the piece as "a nocturne-like work". The one movement consists of an introduction followed by an alternation of rapid music and slow, lyrical passages: Introduction – Rapid Music – Lyrical Section I – Rapid Music – Lyrical Section II – Rapid Music. The entire piece is based on one six-note chord, heard at the beginning of the piece, which is manipulated in various ways. The chord has the property of all-combinatoriality, and Dutilleux uses this property several times to create an aggregate. The piece also features the Dutilleux trademark of mirror writing, which can be heard in several passages. The work is tonally centered on G, which is established by assertion, most notably by the repeated use of the violin's low open G.

Henri Dutilleux's Symphony No. 1 was written in 1951. A composition from the composer's relatively early period, it is Dutilleux's first purely orchestral composition. It is written in a very classical form (four movements), but its language is rather free. It is orchestrated for 85 instrumentalists. The premiere took place at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées on 7 June 1951, with Roger Désormière conducting the Orchestre National de France.

Henri Dutilleux's Symphony No. 2 Le Double is an orchestral work completed in 1959, commissioned by the Koussevitzky Music Foundation for the 75th anniversary of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. It is written for an orchestra and a second group comprising an oboe, a clarinet, a bassoon, a trumpet, a trombone, two violins, a viola, a cello, a harpsichord, a celesta, and timpani.

Henri Paul Julien Dutilleux (French: [ɑ̃ʁi dytijø]; 22 January 1916 – 22 May 2013) was a French composer of late 20th-century classical music. Among the leading French composers of his time, his work was rooted in the Impressionistic style of Debussy and Ravel, but in an idiosyncratic, individual style. Among his best-known works are his early Flute Sonatine and Piano Sonata; concertos for cello, Tout un monde lointain... ("A whole distant world") and violin, L'arbre des songes ("The tree of dreams"); a string quartet known as Ainsi la nuit ("Thus the night"); and two symphonies: No. 1 (1951) and No. 2 Le Double (1959). Works were commissioned from him by such major artists as Charles Munch, George Szell, Mstislav Rostropovich, the Juilliard String Quartet, Isaac Stern, Paul Sacher, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Simon Rattle, Renée Fleming, and Seiji Ozawa. In addition to composing, he worked as the Head of Music Production for Radio France for 18 years. He also taught at the École Normale de Musique de Paris and at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique, and was twice composer in residence at the Tanglewood Music Center in Lenox, Massachusetts. Among Dutilleux's many awards and honours were the Grand Prix de Rome (1938) and the Ernst von Siemens Music Prize (2005). When describing him, the music critic Paul Griffiths wrote that "Mr. Dutilleux’s position in French music was proudly solitary. Between Olivier Messiaen and Pierre Boulez in age, he was little affected by either, though he took an interest in their work. But his voice, marked by sensuously handled harmony and color, was his own."

Tout un monde lointain... (A whole distant world...) is a concertante work for cello and orchestra composed by Henri Dutilleux between 1967 and 1970 for Mstislav Rostropovich. It is considered one of the most important 20th-century additions to the cello repertoire and several major cellists have recorded it. Despite the fact that the score does not state that it is a cello concerto, Tout un monde lointain... has always been considered as such. Each of the five movements was inspired by the poetry of Charles Baudelaire, and the overall feel of the work is mysterious and oneiric. A typical performance runs approximately 27 minutes.