Igor Stravinsky'sViolin Concerto in D is aneoclassicalviolin concerto in fourmovements, composed in the summer of 1931 and premiered on October 23, 1931. It lasts approximately twenty minutes.
It was used byGeorge Balanchine as music for two ballets.
The Violin Concerto was commissioned byBlair Fairchild, an American composer, diplomat, and the patron of the young Polish violinistSamuel Dushkin.[1]
Willy Strecker ofB. Schotts Söhne, Stravinsky's music publisher at the time (and also a friend of Dushkin's), asked Stravinsky to compose a concerto for Dushkin. Though Stravinsky was reluctant, citing unfamiliarity with the instrument, Strecker assured the composer that Dushkin would consult about technical matters.[2] Stravinsky noted in his autobiography that Dushkin's availability for such advice was a factor in his undertaking the Violin Concerto.[3] He also sought the opinion of composer and violistPaul Hindemith, who allayed Stravinsky's fears, suggesting that his unfamiliarity with the instrument might help him come up with new possibilities. Stravinsky met with Dushkin at Strecker's residence inWiesbaden and decided to go ahead.
Early in the compositional process, Stravinsky devised a chord which stretches from D4 to E5 to A6. One day while he and Dushkin were having lunch in a Paris restaurant, he sketched the chord on a napkin for the violinist, who thought the chord unplayable, to Stravinsky's disappointment. On returning home, however, Dushkin tried it out on his violin and was surprised to discover it was actually quite easy to play. He immediately telephoned Stravinsky to say that it could be played after all. The composer later referred to this chord as his "passport to the Concerto".[4]
Stravinsky began sketching the Concerto in Paris early in 1931, with composition beginning in earnest inNice, where the first two movements were completed and the third begun. In the summer, Stravinsky moved to the Château de la Véronnière inVoreppe inIsère, where he completed the third movement and wrote all of the fourth.[5]
The manuscripts are dated May 20, 1931, for the first two movements and June 10, 1931, for the third, all in Nice, with no date given for the fourth. The full orchestral score is signed and dated "Voreppe (Isère) la Vironnière, 13/25. Sept. 1931".[2]
Though Stravinsky told his publisher he wanted to write "a truevirtuoso concerto", "thetexture is always more characteristic ofchamber music than orchestral music".[6] He also observed "I did not compose acadenza, not because I did not care about exploiting violin virtuosity, but because the violin in combination was my real interest. But virtuosity for its own sake has only a small role in my Concerto, and the technical demands of the piece are relatively tame."[7]
The work was premiered on October 23, 1931, in Berlin, beingbroadcast, with Dushkin playing the violin and theBerlin Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Stravinsky himself. Dushkin also gave the work's first US performance in January 1932, withSerge Koussevitzky conducting theBoston Symphony Orchestra. He also made the firstrecording of the piece in 1935, with Stravinsky conducting theOrchestre Lamoureux.
The Violin Concerto contains four movements:
A typical performance of the concerto will last approximately 20 minutes.
In addition to the solo violin, the score calls for:piccolo, 2flutes, 2oboes,cor anglais, 2clarinets in A/B♭,E-flat clarinet (doubling 3rd clarinet in A), 3bassoons (third doublingcontrabassoon), 4horns, 3trumpets, 3trombones,tuba,timpani,bass drum, andstrings.
The concerto was choreographed byGeorge Balanchine asBalustrade in 1941. It premiered on January 22, 1941, withColonel de Basil's companyOriginal Ballet Russe. In 1972 Balanchine created a new ballet to the music, entitledViolin Concerto and had since been retitledStravinsky Violin Concerto. It was premiered in 1972 by theNew York City Ballet at theNew York State Theatre as part of theStravinsky Festival.[8]
Stravinsky himself recorded the work twice:
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