Composed: 1941-42
Premiered: 19422, Los Angeles
Duration: 19 minutes

Stravinsky had three successive nationalities: Russian, French, and American, but at heart he remained a Russian to the end of his long life. His earliest international recognition came as a result of his ballet scores for the fashionable Russian Ballet in Paris. He continued to take an interest in ballet, and choreographers found much of his music congenial, even if it was not specifically intended for dance. By the time he composed Danses concertantes, he was living in Los Angeles in a community of expatriates described by his wife as consisting of “composers, writers, scientists, artists, actors, philosophers, and phonies, more intellectually stimulating than Paris or Munich had ever been.” Stravinsky regarded America as a safe haven from revolution and war. By this time, he was a renowned composer who could be choosy about the commissions he accepted. Hollywood tried to tempt him, but none of his projected movie scores ever came to fruition. Danses concertantes was composed in 1941/42 as a concert piece in the form of a kind of abstract ballet. Its style is somewhat akin to his Dumbarton Oaks concerto, which looked back to Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos for its roots. Although Stravinsky had no particular plot in mind, choreographers quickly recognized its possibilities, and it served as the basis for staged ballets in New York (by Balanchine) as well as in London and San Francisco.

Program note by the late Dr. C.W. Helleiner.