It was well-received, Oistrakh remarking on the "depth of its artistic content" and describing the violin part as a "pithy 'Shakespearian' role."
The Scherzo is also notable for an appearance by the DSCH motif—a motif representing Shostakovich himself that recurs in many of the composer's works.
Oistrakh performed the concerto's premiere on 29 October 1955 with the Leningrad Philharmonic with Yevgeny Mravinsky conducting.
Because of this hostile environment, Shostakovich kept the concerto unpublished until Stalin's death in March 1953 and the thaw that followed.
The first was "simplified and accessible to comply with Kremlin guidelines," while the second was "complex and abstract to satisfy [Shostakovich's] own artistic standards."
The movement starts pianissimo, and by the time it reaches its first dynamic peak, all of the featured melodic and rhythmic information has been presented.
The second movement is a fugal Scherzo, featuring uneven metric stresses set against a steady rhythmic pulse.