As if from nowhere, soft harmonics of the empty A and D strings of the solo violin appear, immediately joined in fivefold pianissimo by a lower-pitched viola. The result is a strangely inauthentic intonation rich in overtones. The sound fabric becomes denser and denser until, with the entry of the marimba, the solo violin sets clear accents in its arpeggios, which become a kind of conundrum of an ascending and descending melody that can be heard in the sound fabric, which is also increasingly surrounded by marimba and xylophone sounds. The violin is at once melodic accent-carrier and sixteenth-note accompaniment-texture, split, as it were, into two personalities. The preluding sounds mingle, becoming more intense and wild in the violin with imperceptible and accelerating rhythm changes of the solo violin, with the entry of the woodwinds and brass, and finally with the throbbing timpani.

Only a sudden piano brings back harmonics to the violin.Trumpets and trombones mark a signal, a moment of calm and harmony, then one hears the beginnings of the melodic voxel play again, the solo violin dominates again with its wild runs and fifths, but the sound weaving ebbs away more and more despite all the dynamics, until after the exhaustion of the solo violin, only the timpani and bass drum sink into nothingness, morendo poco a poco al niente, as it says in the score.

Attacca, the violin now begins to sing a beautifully simple melody on the G string, lonely but cantabile, semplice ma espressivo (for connoisseurs: Ligeti quotes it from his 6 Bagatelles for Wind Quintet). A viola joins in with a long-drawn bow. Flutes and other instruments sing along and the horns spread the sound more and more. Unexpectedly, the garish transverse sounds of ocarinas (bird-like vessel flutes of porcelain or clay with finger holes and a beak for blowing) burst in, garishly caricaturing a mis-sounding chorale. The solo violin Romantic is gone, left to respond only with fierce pizzicato chords. Only slowly does the chorale emerge more and more sincerely from an overtone-richly organized jumble, as if half-repaired and taken seriously (similar to Alban Berg's Violin Concerto). And the violin then finds its way back to its devotional melody of the beginning. A dark-sounding flute quietly replaces the solo violin and fades away.

Only after a long pause do we hear how two clarinets emerge from the silence in quiet, rubbing nuances of sound to create a slowly rising passacaglia sequence of notes. The solo violin joins in softly with long, fine, high hallucinatory notes. Almost imperceptibly, a trumpet joins the passacaglia con sordino. Two horns join in finely dissonant. Further and further we hear how the sounds strive upwards, above all the solo violin.

Violas and cellos set new accents with unexpected fortissimo. After a brief freeze, the Passacaglia begins to move. The strings insist until the violin comes down from its high overtones and begins a passionate solo. Trumpets answer with a jazzy rhythm. The violin continues to play insistently and passionately, interrupted again and again by different passacaglia sounds from the multi-faceted orchestra, sometimes enchantingly restrained, sometimes brutally driving.

The violin, with a great tone, enforces its playing, which is increasingly perceived as melody, but is more and more swallowed up by a bright, intense and increasing cloud current of sound, which then suddenly breaks off. Only the passion of the solo violin, accompanied by the strings, lingers briefly.

Flutes over con sordino strings prepare a fine carpet of sound, but the violin drives almost screamingly and fearfully between them. The panic-stricken rhythms of the violin are taken over by the brass, percussion and other muffled or shrill-sounding orchestral instruments and dramatically increased to timpani beats. The solo violin's sound of a fifth briefly puts a stop to this... but the hectic pace continues. It thins out - finally there are only violin and clarinet left - into almost hypnotic heights.

Then a horn, horns call for calm. And really, the violin seems to become calmer, until the hectic pace of violin and orchestra takes over again. Imperceptibly, pushed forward by the orchestra, the movement moves into a great solo cadenza, where hecticness and virtuosity can no longer be separated. According to Ligeti's instructions, the solo violinist can freely invent the cadenza. It should last 1 - 2 minutes, always hectic, but can use "melodic material ad lib. from all five movements. Towards the end the tempo should be prestissimo with alternating arco and left hand pizz. in mad virtuosity. The cadenza has no real end and is suddenly interrupted by the orchestra (as agreed between the soloist and conductor)." This interruption happens 'as if unprepared', in a flash. At the same time, the soloist is supposed to be in high registers (the 1st string), at the greatest speed. At the entrance of the high woodblocks, the solo violin abruptly falls silent - so Ligeti's instructions.

The percussion instruments slam into the cadenza, an abrupt wind figure follows, a last pizzicato of the solo violin sets the final point, only a flute sound fades away silently.