The following are Program Notes for the Chamber Music at the Y concerts with the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio, Leila Josefowicz (violin) and Michael Tree (viola) at the 92nd Street Y on March 18 and 19. Artist bios are available here.

STRAVINSKY: Duo concertante for Violin and Piano
Igor Stravinsky was born in Oranienbaum [now Lomonosov], near St. Petersburg, in 1882 and died in New York in 1971. He wrote the Duo concertante for Violin and Piano in 1931-32.

Stravinsky composed his Violin Concerto in 1931 for the young Samuel Dushkin. Although Stravinsky (as conductor) and Dushkin (as soloist) received invitations to play the concerto all over Europe, the composer realized that their performances were limited to cities with a capable orchestra. It occurred to him that concerts might be more easily arranged if he wrote something for piano and violin, so that he and Dushkin could perform it almost anywhere. The result was the Duo concertante, composed between December 1931 and mid-July 1932.

It was atypical of Stravinsky at this time to admit to so practical a reason for the composition as needing the piece for his concert tours. But he found an aesthetic justification for writing a work for piano and violin, a medium he claimed (in his autobiography) to dislike.

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