The Violin Concerto was written four months after Britten and Peter Pears sailed for the United States in 1939, and was first performed the following year in New York, with Antonio Brosa and the New York Philharmonic conducted by Barbirolli. Like the Piano Concerto, written the previous year, the work is in D major, but in contrast to that work there is less irony and a more complicated relationship between soloist and orchestra.

Britten was probably the first composer since Beethoven to begin a violin concerto with a motto-rhythm on the timpani, a daring challenge vindicated by the soaring lyricism of the soloist's first entry at which point the rhythm is transferred to bassoon and horn, and thereafter is never far beneath the surface. Structurally, this first movement is in a basic sonata form, with two clearly defined subjects both introduced by the soloist. During the development the lyrical first subject assimilates the more aggressively rhythmic second theme, which Britten chooses to omit from its traditional place in the recapitulation.

The second movement consists of a brilliant scherzo and trio, notable for its dynamic rhythmic drive, its distinctive scoring, and the phenomenal virtuosity of the violin part, which includes some dazzling scales in thirds, sixths, octaves and tenths. There is a sudden change of mood in the trio section when the violin falls silent and the iridescent scherzo theme is transformed into a rumbling solo for tuba with two piccolos supplying a staccato ostinato supported by the strings' harmonic tremolo, a good example of Britten's use of highly unusual scorings. 

After a big climax, the ensuing cadenza is used as a bridge between scherzo and finale and also to bring back the drum-motto and other material from the first movement. While the violin is rhapsodising on the music with which it was first heard, the three trombones make their first entry with the theme of the simple and haunting Passacaglia, Britten's first use of a form in which he was to write some of his most impressive music. At each entry the repeated ground theme begins a semitone lower, and eventually is altered in rhythm, broken up and shortened as the soloist demonstrates more of its potential. As this Passacaglia takes a grip, the orchestration becomes more strikingly original, with clear shrill woodwind, edgy but still fulsome brass, and the high violin lament.

There is a rapt simplicity in the expression of passionately felt, almost verbal, emotion of the final pages, with the solo violin's last repeated phrases seeming to speak their grief and longing, bringing the work to an end which is tonally inconclusive, somewhere between D major and minor.

Britten revised the concerto in 1950, simplifying the solo part and removing Brosa'a editorial elaborations, and again in 1958.