Niccolò Paganini composed his Violin Concerto No. 4 in D minor between the autumn of 1829 and the winter of 1830. He had already made his triumphant Viennese debut in 1828 using his astoundingly difficult first three Violin Concertos to demonstrate his unequaled virtuosity. But feeling a need for new repertoire while touring Germany, Paganini wrote his Fourth between performances, and although he wrote to his publisher that he intended to "deflower" the work in Paris, he actually performed it several times in Germany. In his review of the work, Ludwig Spohr wrote "in his composition and his style there is a strange mixture of consummate genius, childishness, and lack of taste that alternately charms and repels." Writing of the Parisian premiere, critic Castil-Blaze said that the work had a "most original form" and had "several highly picturesque effects." Cast in the standard three-movement form, Paganini's Concerto No. 4 opens with a stormy Allegro maestoso in D minor followed by a highly emotional Adagio flebile con sentimento in F sharp minor and closes with a racing Rondo galante in D minor with a novel obbligato triangle that no doubt elicited Castil-Blaze's comment on "picturesque effects."

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