Stravinsky's 'Dumbarton Oaks Concerto'

Stravinsky's 'Dumbarton Oaks Concerto'

From Composers Datebook by American Public Media

May 8, 2026 · 2 min

About this episode

The episode discusses Igor Stravinsky's composition of the Dumbarton Oaks Concerto commissioned for a wedding anniversary in 1938.

Synopsis On today’s date in 1938, a musical soirée was held at Dumbarton Oaks, a magnificent house on the crest of a wooded valley in Washington, D.C. This was the home of Robert and Mildred Bliss. Robert had retired from a distinguished career in the U.S. Foreign Service, which included a posting in St. Petersburg in 1907, around the same time a young Russian composer name Igor Stravinsky was getting some of his first public performances there. The Blisses commissioned Stravinsky to write a chamber work to be premiered at their 30th wedding anniversary, a work now known as the Dumbarton Oaks Concerto . “A little concerto in the style of the Brandenburg Concertos ,” was how Stravinsky put it, adding, “I played Bach very regularly during the composition of the concerto, and I was greatly attracted to the Brandenburg Concertos. Whether or not the first theme of my first movement is a conscious borrowing from the third of the Brandenburg set, however, I do not know. What I can say is that Bach would most certainly have been delighted to loan it to me; to borrow in this way was exactly the sort of thing he liked to do.” Music Played in Today's Program Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971)…

Topics covered

  • Stravinsky
  • Dumbarton Oaks
  • chamber music
  • Bach
  • musical history

Keywords

  • Stravinsky
  • Dumbarton Oaks
  • concerto
  • Bach
  • Brandenburg Concertos
  • musical soiree
  • Washington D.C.

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: American Public Media

Books & works: Dumbarton Oaks Concerto, Brandenburg Concertos

Places: Washington, D.C.

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