Paganini composed his 4th violin concerto in Germany while on tour. The official premiere was in 1831 in Paris. This concerto was met with mixed rewies. The orchestral score was bought by a paper dealer 1936, from the descendants of Paganini. This orchestral score was bought by Natale Gallini, but the solo violin part was unaccounted for. Mr. Gallini made it a personal crusade to find the missing part, and eventually it was located in a collection of music which had belonged to Giovanni Bottesini, a double-bass player. Mr. Gallini at this point gave the complete musical score to his son, conductor Franco Gallini. With Arthur Grumiaux on the violin, the work received its "Second World Premiere" on November 7, 1954, again in Paris.
The concerto follows the standard form consisting of three movements, fast - slow - fast, as popularized by Antonio Vivaldiin the late-17th and early-18th centuries.
