The Violin Concerto in G minor was conceived in 1851 and completed in a first version by the spring of 1852. Probably Joachim took considerable pains in creating this concerto, his first of three. A letter of 20 August 1851 reads: ‘I am working diligently; but the concerto is still not finished. If only the sentence “whatever lasts long will be good” were applicable to it!’ It seems clear enough that Op. 3 did not recycle material from his earlier teenage efforts to write in the genre. Certain markers in form, harmony, and orchestral and violin writing suggest rather its origins in Weimar, though the genesis of the concerto probably overlapped with that of the Irish Fantasy (composed before May 1852). On 25 June 1852 Joachim performed the concerto, as well as the Hungarian Fantasy, at the Queen's Concert Rooms at Hanover Square, London; thus the premiere was more than a year earlier than is sometimes claimed in the literature. This first performance led Joachim to revise the piece, which he took up again by August while he was polishing the fantasies and continuing his Hamlet Overture. After some repose the piece resurfaced in letters from the summer of 1853. By then Joachim had moved to Hanover, assuming his post as Königlicher Konzertmeister and Kammervirtuose at the court of Georg V (1819–78). Before June 1853 Joachim heard the concerto in Weimar in a rehearsal – probably the same as the ‘run through’ of his Hamlet Overture in May5 – which prompted him to send it to Schumann ‘so that he may reassure me about it’.

Nevertheless, in September Joachim did not protest when Liszt informed him, ‘I have given myself permission to programme your concerto for the first concert (on 3 Oct[ober])’, and thereby sealed Joachim's participation in one of the most important concerts organized by members of the New German School: the Musikfest in Karlsruhe. Some days before departing for Karlsruhe, where Joachim arrived around 26 September 1853, he wrote to his parents: ‘… I am on my way to Karlsruhe, in order to play my violin concerto at the Musikfest. I will report to dear Fritz in Vienna and to you about the success of the same.’