Violin Concerto in D
Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971)

 

Composed in 1931. Premiered on October 23, 1931 in Berlin, with Samuel Dushkin as soloist and the composer conducting.

Late in 1930, Willy Strecker, co-owner and director of Schott, the prestigious German publishing house, suggested to Igor Stravinsky that a violin concerto might make a welcome addition to the catalog of his music, and that the violinist Samuel Dushkin was willing to offer technical advice for the project. The composer was, however, reluctant to accept the proposal. On the one hand, he still lacked complete confidence in writing for the violin as a solo instrument, despite the challenging part he had included for it in The Soldier’s Tale. On the other, he was worried that Dushkin might be interested only in a virtuoso showpiece, with little concern for the musical niceties inherent in the form. It was the composer Paul Hindemith who reassured him on the first point. He told Stravinsky that his unfamiliarity with the violin might actually be a benefit since he could apply fresh ideas to the use of the instrument rather than just composing what Hindemith said would be “suggested by the familiar movements of the fingers.” Stravinsky listened to this argument with some attention because Hindemith, in addition to being a master composer and teacher, was also one of the finest string players of his day. Stravinsky’s second concern was allayed by Dushkin himself. Before they met, Stravinsky thought that Dushkin might be one of those performers interested only in “immediate triumphs ... [through] special effects, whose preoccupation naturally influences their taste, their choice of music, and their manner of treating the piece selected.” Their first meeting, however, proved to be warm and friendly. Stravinsky recalled that he perceived in his new colleague, “besides his remarkable gifts as a born violinist, a musical culture, a delicate understanding, and — in the exercise of his profession — an abnegation [of selfish interest] that is very rare.” Their initial contact blossomed into sincere friendship; the Violin Concerto (formally underwritten by the American composer Blair Fairchild, one of Dushkin’s most enthusiastic supporters) is the offspring of that mutual admiration.

Stravinsky began the Violin Concerto at his home in Nice early in 1931, but he was soon obliged to put it aside for his performances as pianist and conductor in a European concert tour. He was able to finish the first two movements in May soon after he returned to Nice, but was frequently distracted by the city’s social whirl, and decided to look for a quieter venue in which to finish the piece. He found a large, comfortable house in Voreppe, a small town near Grenoble, and rented it. (He liked it so well that he stayed there for three years.) Rushing to get on with Dushkin’s Concerto, he recalled, “I finished it among half-unpacked trunks and boxes and the coming and going of movers, upholsterers, electricians and plumbers. My faithful friend Dushkin, who had moved to Grenoble to be nearby, used to come to see me everyday. The work was made particularly pleasant by the enthusiasm and understanding with which Dushkin followed my progress.” The violinist offered whatever advice Stravinsky requested, and played over passages almost before the ink was dry to test their effect. It was a salubrious atmosphere in which to work, and the Concerto was completed by September.

The Concerto opens with a “motto” gesture, a widely spaced chord that Stravinsky called “a passport to the music,” and which returns at important structural junctures throughout the work, most notably at the beginning of each subsequent movement. The body of the first movement (titled Toccata) commences with a jaunty main theme in precise rhythm delivered by the trumpets. Contrasting ideas are presented, all wedded together in a pellucid texture by the motoric rhythm. The two Arias (both in three-part, A–B–A form) follow: the first uses an angular melody in its outer sections but turns scherzo-ish for its central portion; the second is slower in tempo and doleful in expression. The concluding Capriccio, a dazzling showpiece for the soloist despite Stravinsky’s disavowal of virtuoso pyrotechnics, returns the dancing motion of the opening movement.

Notes by Dr. Richard E. Rodda