Though some themes of the D major Violin Concerto appear fragmentarily among Beethoven's earlier drafts, the score received its final shape - according to the autograph manuscript - in 1806 only. The first performance took place on December 23 of the same year in Vienna, the violon solo was played by Franz Clement. The concerto met with a rather cold reception: this critic of the Wiener Theaterzeitung admitted 'some beauty' in it but for the rest he found that '...the coherence often seems total...