15th Symphony (Myaskovsky)
| 15th symphony | |
|---|---|
| key | D minor |
| opus | 38 |
| Sentence names |
|
| Total duration | about 38 minutes |
| Composed | 1933/1934 |
| occupation | Symphony orchestra |
| premiere | On October 28, 1935 in Moscow under the direction of Leo Moritzewitsch Ginsburg |
The symphony in D minor op. 38 is the 15th symphony by the composer Nikolai Jakowlewitsch Mjaskowski .
History of origin
When Mjaskowski was working on the 14th Symphony in 1933 , he found that the material he had planned for the final movement was so complex that it called for a symphony of its own. The further conception of the 15th symphony then turned out to be tedious. In 1934 the composer began work on the chronograph of symphonic music , which he never completed. In it he tried to collect and organize the symphonic from its beginnings ( Corelli , Concerto Grosso ) up to the present day. Of course, special attention was paid to Russian and Soviet music, which he included in the periods “The beginning of the modern era up to the October Revolution ”, “The period after the October Revolution (the emergence of the Soviet symphonic)” and “Symphonic with strongly pronounced Soviet styles “Divided. From the 14th symphony onwards, Mjaskowski himself had arrived in the “symphony with strongly pronounced Soviet stylistic traits”, the 15th represented another major step in his personal development, which was not completed until the 16th symphony .
After the first sentence was completed quickly, Mjaskowski's notes contained entries such as “Still looking for a second sentence” throughout the year. It was not until May 8, 1934 that he wrote: “It seems that I have overcome the deadlock.” But the third sentence also gave him problems; he rejected the first version, but later returned to it. Then he deleted passages from the first movement in order to then re-insert them. At the end of 1934 the work was finally completed.
analysis
As with the 14th Symphony, the tonal language is simple and clear. The four-movement symphony is large-scale and yet clearly arranged. Although Mjaskowski only used his own themes, many of the melodies have a folk song-like character. Overall, the work was described as "full of light" and "optimistic", so it fit well with the requirements of the new Soviet culture.
The first movement begins with a short introduction, which is followed by the sonata form . The first theme appears in D minor, followed by a short chromatic transition to the second theme. The subsequent development ends with a large crescendo that collapses and thus introduces the recapitulation. The second, slow movement is in B minor and has a dark and reflective character. The third movement is an elegant (con garbo) waltz in G minor , which is strongly reminiscent of Glinka's waltz fantasy . The finale opens with a wind fanfare in D minor, but ends in D major .
Reception and criticism
The symphony was a great success in the Soviet Union, as it hit the nerve of the time and largely fulfilled the demands of socialist realism . Musicologist and critic GN Chubow summed it up as follows:
"Everyone who heard Myaskovsky's‹ Fifteenth ›was involuntarily seized with a feeling of deep joy, because the‹ Fifteenth ›is not only a new opus among the symphonies of Myaskovsky, but also a new work in Soviet music ..."
Mjaskowski himself saw the work as a step in the right direction to meet the new requirements, but was also aware that he had not yet reached his goal. He wrote:
“The 'Fifteenth' ... is valued for its optimism and lyrical character. And yet their language is not yet what I am looking for in order to feel completely as an artist of our time! I don't know what this language should look like, and I don't know any recipe for how to look for it. Neither the efforts aimed at the folk song nor the intonations of our urban melodies in their pure form seem to me to be the sole building blocks for creating the musical language of socialist realism in instrumental music, the specifics of which are essentially different from song-like vocal music. "
In the previous year he had still had problems with the new tonal language and had gone other ways with the 13th Symphony , he had now come to terms with it and was even enthusiastic about it:
"... This idea is my dream, and as such it has to come true one day, exactly in the same way that the lofty dreams of the best representatives of mankind from all centuries and peoples are now becoming reality."
literature
- CD supplement Warner Music France 2564 69689-8 (Miaskovsky: Intégrale des Symphonies, Evgeny Svetlanov (cond.))
- Soja Gulinskaja: Nikolai Jakowlewitsch Mjaskowski. Moscow 1981, German Berlin 1985
Web links
- kith.org
- wanadoo.nl ( Memento from May 13, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
- myaskovsky.ru