Dumbarton Who?
Robert and Mildred Bliss purchased their circa-1801 Georgetown home in 1920 and extensively remodeled it. Dumbarton Oaks was to be a center of arts and culture. Amongst their many additions the Blisses added the music room where Stravinsky’ s friend Nadia Boulanger conducted the concerto’ s debut in 1938.
According to Walsh’ s history, The Second Exile, a brief cable from Mildred Bliss to the composer stating that“ Performance concerto Dumbarton Oaks was worthy of the work” caused Stravinsky much confusion. Had his friend Nadia been taken ill? Who was this Dumbarton Oaks who performed his concerto?
“ Mildred had unilaterally decided that Concerto in E-flat was too anonymous a title for a work of hers,” Walsh explains,“ so what more natural than to give it the name of the house in whose gracious and lofty music room it was first performed?”
The piece, more commonly known by the name“ Dumbarton Oaks,” is the Stravinsky piece Goodwin has conducted most often in his own career.
“ I love its intricacy and its outward effervescent nature mixed with its innerlooking darker moments,” he explains.
The concerto was commissioned by the cultural doyenne Mildred Bliss in 1937 to commemorate the 30 th anniversary of her wedding to diplomat Robert Woods Bliss. At the time, the Blisses lived at Dumbarton Oaks, their beautiful estate in Washington, D. C.’ s Georgetown neighborhood, and some believe the home’ s renowned gardens inspired Stravinsky’ s composition( though he was in Switzerland when he first sketched the piece). According to Stephen Walsh’ s biography Stravinsky, The Second Exile: France and America 1934 – 1971, the Blisses requested a short piece of chamber music in the style of Bach’ s Brandenburg Concertos. They paid Stravinsky $ 2,500.
Goodwin says the influence of Bach is apparent and he has even performed
“ When Stravinsky goes to America, he is a celebrity responding to commissions and absorbing all the influences available to him while still forging his own original voice”
Mildred and Robert Woods Bliss in their music room( where the Dumbarton Oaks Concerto was first performed).
“ Dumbarton Oaks” with part of the Brandenburg Concerto interspersed with the Stravinsky.“ The challenge,” he says,“ is to find the many moods of the piece within a strict rhythmic structure.”
Stravinsky’ s early works—“ The Rite of Spring” and“ The Firebird”— may be household names, but his long and prolific career in America was no less inspired. And while his pieces had many influences, such as the Concerto in E-flat taking inspiration from Bach’ s Baroque world, the resulting compositions are pure Stravinsky. It is this that marks Stravinsky’ s genius and that has secured his place in the cannon.
“ His individual voice is so strong that it shines through every one of his compositions whatever the style,” says Goodwin.“ His compositions, though at times intense and emotional, generally involve an element of detachment from him. This, in turn, leaves room for the listener to enter the music on their terms with their mood rather than having to subscribe to a single dominating romantic ethic.”
Dumbarton Oaks Archives, Washington, D. C.
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