Its first performance was by the Polish violinist Stanisław Barcewicz on 20 September 1878, at a Russian Symphony Concert at the Trocadéro in Paris, France, under the baton of Nikolai Rubinstein, in conjunction with the 1878 Paris World Exposition. Barcewicz was a fellow student of Iosif Kotek's under Tchaikovsky, and it was he who in 1892 gave the Polish premiere of the Violin Concerto, under the composer's baton.