Article by Richard Cavendish entitled “Premiere of Beethoven's Violin Concerto, December 23rd, 1806”.
“War with France put a damper on social and artistic life in Vienna in the summer of 1806, but winter brought a revival and the first large-scale orchestral concert was given by the violinist Franz Clement, a friend of Beethoven's, leader of the Vienna Opera orchestra and a much admired former child prodigy. Now twenty-six, he was famous for his technical skill and his amazing memory. Beethoven wrote the violin concerto specially for the event, and quickly, it seems.
The composer had spent some of the summer at the country house of his Hungarian aristocratic friends the Brunsvik family, enjoying the company of their two delightful elder daughters, Therese and Josephine. He cherished particularly warm feelings for the widowed Josephine, and she for him. They wrote each other affectionate letters and it seems he proposed marriage, but she said no. When she did marry again, in 1810, it was unhappily.”
History Today December 2006 | Vol. 56 (12), p. 61