Concerto in E-flat for Chamber Orchestra, 1937-8, Dumbarton Oaks
performed Oct 8/9, 2005

Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971) was born near St. Petersburg. He was a musical child and a diligent student, but gave little hint of his future as one of the world's most controversial composers. On the advice of his partents, he studied law, viewing law as a safer bet than a life in music. In 1903, an encounter with Rimsky- Korsakov changed his life. Studying with Rimsky- Korsakov, Stravinsky resolved to become a composer - against Rimsky- Korsakov's advice!

It was Serge Diaghilev, the famed choreographer and impresario, who launched Stravinsky's career after hearing Scherzo fantastique and Feu d'artifice at a St. Petersburg concert in 1909. The first commission was The Firebird, launching Stravinsky to overnight fame. Next came the daring and complex Petrouchka, and then the riot-inducing Rite of Spring. Within three commissions, Stravinsky had gone from mere fame to a reputation as the controversial crown prince of the avant-garde.

During World War I, Stravinsky sought refuge in Switzerland. Lean times obliged him to write for small ensembles, and Stravinsky described this period as his "final break with the Russian orchestral school." At the close of the war, he moved to Paris; all of his property in Russia had been confiscated and the Communist government blocked Stravinsky's royalties. Still receiving commissions from Diaghilev, Stravinsky embarked on a new, neo-Classical phase with Pulcinella. All of his remaining works would have a classical sense of clarity and elegance.

After the deaths of his wife and daughter from tuberculosis, and with clear indications of World War II on the horizon, Stravinsky opted to move to the United States in 1939. He had already won a commission from the Boston Symphony Orchestra under Serge Koussevitsky, but Stravinsky chose to settle in Hollywood, where a large number of European artists (including composer Arnold Schoebert) had already settled. The 1940's saw masterpieces like Symphony in C and The Rake's Progress and a dramatic turn to serialism. Despite this radical change, Stravinsky's name and reputation guaranteed every work multiple performances and a recording.

In his last decade, Stravinsky achieved a surprising degree of celebrity, being feted by the Pope, the Kennedys, and, in a highly publicized return to Russia in 1962, by Nikita Khruschchev. Stravinsky died in New York on April 6, 1971. He was buried, at his own request, near his friend Diaghilev on Venice's cemetery island of San Michele.

Stravinsky's Concerto in E-flat for Chamber Orchestra is lovingly referred to as the "Dumbarton Oaks" concerto, though few people outside of the District of Columbia have any idea what that means. Dumbarton Oaks is the name of the Washington, D.C., estate of Robert Woods Bliss, who connissioned the concerto for this thirtieth wedding anniversary on May 8, 1938. Stravinsky began the concerto at the Château de Montoux, near Annemasse, France, in the spring of 1937, completing it in Paris on March 29, 1938. Nadia Boulanger conducted the premier.

Dumbarton Oaks was inspired by Bach's Brandenburg concertos, particularly the third. Stravinsky's first theme is similar to Bach's, and his scoring likewise calls for three violins and three violas. All fifteen instruments are treated as soloists.

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