ON THIS DAY

Stravinsky Violin Concerto Premiered On This Day in 1931

October 23, 2020

2 MIN READ

The 4 movement work contains a similar chord at the beginning of each movement - which the composer described as 'the password to the concerto'

Igor Stravinsky’s Violin Concerto in D premiered on this day in 1931.

The Violin Concerto was commissioned by Blair Fairchild, an American composer and diplomat who supported the young Polish violinist Samuel Dushkin, a student of Leopold Auer and Fritz Kreisler.

Willy Strecker the head of the B. Schotts Söhne publishing firm in Mainz, Germany (Stravinsky's music publisher at the time and a friend of Dushkin), also requested Stravinsky to write a concerto for Dushkin. At first Stravinsky hesitated due to his lack of familiarity with the violin, but Strecker assured him that Dushkin would provide technical guidance. In his autobiography, Stravinsky mentioned that Dushkin's willingness to assist was a significant factor in his decision to proceed with the Violin Concerto. He also consulted composer and violist Paul Hindemith, who alleviated Stravinsky's concerns by suggesting that his unfamiliarity with the instrument would inspire innovative ideas.

Dushkin recounted some of the early stages of helping Stravinsky with the work. “One day when we were lunching in a restaurant, Stravinsky took out a piece of paper and wrote down this chord and asked me if it could be played. I had never seen a chord with such an enormous stretch, from the E to the top A, and I said ‘No.’ Stravinsky said sadly, ‘Quel dommage!’ [What a pity!] After I got home, I tried it, and, to my astonishment, found that in that register, the stretch of the eleventh was relatively easy to play, and the sound fascinated me. I telephoned Stravinsky at once to tell him that it could be done. When the Concerto was finished, more than six months later, I understood his disappointment when I first said ‘No.’ This chord, in a different dress, begins each of the four movements.” Stravinsky himself calls it his “passport” to the concerto.

Stravinsky recalled that “Dushkin came to confer with me during the months of composition, and thus began a friendship and a musical collaboration that … lasted 30 years.”

The first performance was given by Samuel Dushkin - with Stravinsky conducting the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra.

George Balanchine, with the composer looking over his shoulder, choreographed the concerto in 1941 as Balustrade for Colonel Wassily de Basil’s Ballet Russe.