24th Symphony (Myaskovsky)

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The 24th Symphony in F minor op. 63 by the Russian composer Nikolai Mjaskowski (1881–1950) from 1943 is dedicated to the memory of Vladimir Derschanowski .

Origin and premiere

Nikolai Mjaskowski was evacuated in August 1941, first to Nalchik in the North Caucasus, and later to Tbilisi , due to the German advance on Moscow , where he worked as a composition professor at the Conservatory . In 1942 he moved to Frunze . Finally, in December 1942, a return to Moscow was possible; Myaskovsky was not to leave the city until his death in 1950. In September 1942 he had received news of the death of his long-time friend and musicologist and critic Vladimir Derschanowski. He dedicated his 24th symphony to his memory (the last of three symphonies composed during the war years from 1941), the draft of which he began in March 1943. During this time he also learned of the death of Sergei Rachmaninoff . After interruptions and a. Because of the work on his 9th string quartet, Mjaskowski found time again for the symphony in the summer of 1943, the instrumentation of which he completed on August 24, 1943. The premiere took place under the direction of Yevgeny Mrawinsky on December 8, 1943 in the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory.

Cast, playing time and characterization

The score provides for the following scoring : 2 flutes , piccolo , 2 oboes , English horn , 2 clarinets , bass clarinet , 2 bassoons , contrabassoon , 4 horns , 3 trumpets , 3 trombones , tuba , timpani , percussion ( drum , pair of cymbals , bass drum ) and Strings .

The playing time of the 24th Symphony in F minor, Op. 63 by Nikolai Mjaskowski is around 32 to 38 minutes.

The work has three movements that correspond to the pattern fast - slow - fast and are overwritten as follows:

  1. Allegro deciso
  2. Molto sostenuto
  3. Allegro appassionato

The first and third movements follow the sonata form and each begin with brass fanfares. The finale closing in F major is based on a modified form of the secondary theme of the first movement. The slow second movement is characterized by the repeated recurrence of a tragic main theme in different orchestration. The musicologist Boris Schwarz compares the symphony with the 8th Symphony by Dmitri Shostakovich, which premiered about a month earlier, and notes certain common traits: “ Dark timbres, tragic symbols, a tendency towards contemplative contemplation. “However, Mjaskowski is in places“ perhaps more heroic, but his heroism is of a traditional kind […]. The work is full of good and noble intentions, but it never rises above any essentially conventional concept. "

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Information at sikorski.de
  2. ↑ Interpretation by Yevgeny Swetlanow / SO of the USSR, contained in: Mjaskowski, Integrale des Symphonies, Warner Music, France
  3. ^ Boris Schwarz: Music and musical life in the Soviet Union. 1917 to the present. Part I - III. Heinrichshofen, Wilhelmshaven, 1982. ISBN 3-7959-0377-7 , p. 333

swell

  • Work details at myaskovsky.ru
  • CD supplement Naxos 8.555376 (Mjaskowski, symphonies 24 and 25, conducted by Dmitry Yablonsky (cond.))
  • Soja Gulinskaja: Nikolai Jakowlewitsch Mjaskowski. Moscow 1981, German Berlin, Verl. Neue Musik 1985, pp. 213–221.