Martinů started writing the Concerto for Violin and Orchestra No. 1 in the spring of 1932 upon the commission of the American violinisto f Polish origin Samuel Dushkin, who was also supposed to premier the piece. In 1933 Martinů delivered the concerto to Dushkin, who apparently was satisfied with it. Yet the 1934 correspondence between Martinů and the publisher Schott and his family reveals that he was still working on the concerto. It seems that the collaboration with Dushkin was by no means easy. The violinist insisted on numerous passages focused on the technique of playing. It is remarkable how this concerto for a single solo instrument is entered by elements of concertante music (for several solo instruments and orchestra) for which Martinů had such a penchant in this period.
Dushkin ultimately did not premiere the work. The concerto fell into oblivion after Martinů, fleeting to the United States, left it behind somewhere in Europe. (He didn’t live to see it premiered.) Harry Halbreich only found the autograph in 1968, in the Moldenhauer archives. The concerto was only premiered 40 years after its origination, in Chicago in 1973, performed by Josef Suk with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the conductor Georg Solti.
Sandra Bergmannová, Martinů:Violin Concertos, Rhapsody-Concerto, Prague: Supraphon, 2009.