*In the opinion of Barbara Heyman, Samuel Barber’s renowned biographer, and Marc Mostovoy, a Tabuteau student and cognoscente on the genesis of the Barber Violin Concerto, the second movement opening oboe solo was most likely written with the Brahms Violin Concerto and Marcel Tabuteau in mind. Barber greatly admired both the composer and oboist; he attended many of Tabuteau’s wind classes at Curtis. The premier was to be given by the Philadelphia Orchestra where Tabuteau, as principal oboist, often performed the Brahms solo, and where Barber most probably heard it. The confluence of all these factors points heavily towards that conclusion.