During his seventeen-year stay in Paris, Martinů composed several concerts from one to four instruments returning to the form of a baroque concerto grosso. These include the three-movement Concertante Duo for Two Violins and Orchestra, H 264. It was composed in Nice in the Villa Point Claire, belonging to Josef Šíma, from November to December 1937. The premiere took place a year later at Radio Lausanne, the soloists were brothers George and Victor Desarzens, to whom the composition is dedicated and for whom it was commissioned. "I took the orchestra very easily so that it did not overlap the soloists and so that there was no need to force the solos. The tempo of the first movement sticks to the concerto grosso, ie not to hurry, on the contrary, to play with the intention to delay, so that sonority and technique come to the fore. I think Poco allegro is apt. The second sentence, Lento, presents no pace problems. (...) As for the title, I didn't write any, but I think that the best would be Le duo concertant for two violins and orchestra ", Martinů writes to Miloš Šafránek in his letter from Nice.
From the concerto grosso, Martinů took over the typical alternation of "soli" and "tutti", which fascinated him for many years. The works from the 1930s are characterized by a three-movement structure, as well as a departure from the sonata form and its individual themes, which are replaced by a continuous thread of subtle motivic elements. As in the Inventions, H 234, the orchestral color, the freshness of musical ideas, and the virtuoso solo parts of both instruments make this twenty-minute composition an extraordinary musical experience.
Lenka Foltýnová, programme of the Bohuslav Martinů Festival's concert, December 11–12, 2003