3rd Symphony (Rachmaninoff)

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The Symphony No. 3 in A minor, Op. 44 is the last symphony by Sergei Wassiljewitsch Rachmaninoff .

Emergence

Rachmaninoff composed the third symphony in 1935, almost 30 years after his second symphony . A second version of the work was created in 1938.

To the music

occupation

Piccolo flute , two flutes , two oboes , English horn , two clarinets in A and B, bass clarinet in A and B, two bassoons , contrabassoon , four French horns in F, two trumpets in A and B, alto trumpet in F, three trombones , tuba , three Timpani , xylophone , triangle , snare drum , cymbals , bass drum , tambourine , gong , harp (or celesta ), violins , violas , cellos , double basses .

Sentence sequence

  1. Lento - Allegro moderato - Allegro
  2. Adagio ma non troppo - Allegro vivace
  3. Allegro - Allegro vivace - Allegro (Tempo primo) - Allegretto - Allegro vivace.

analysis

With its second main theme, the first movement ties in with the second symphony. The nostalgic idyll of the movement is juxtaposed with modernisms.

The same takes place in the second movement, which is in itself romantic , but contains a neoclassical scherzo as the middle section .

In the third movement of the symphony, Rachmaninoff leans on his teacher Sergei Ivanovich Taneyev with a fugato . The reprise is from a Bolero - Intermezzo initiated.

effect

The third symphony was premiered in Philadelphia in 1936 by the Philadelphia Orchestra under Leopold Stokowski . Rachmaninoff took the moderate public reaction calmly: “Your reception by audiences and critics was sour. One review is particularly heavy on my stomach: that I no longer have a 3rd symphony in me. Personally, I firmly believe that this is a good work. But sometimes composers are also wrong. So far I am sticking to my opinion. "

literature

  • Christoph Hahn, Siegmar Hohl (eds.), Bertelsmann Konzertführer , Bertelsmann Lexikon Verlag, Gütersloh / Munich 1993, ISBN 3-570-10519-9
  • Harenberg concert guide, Harenberg Kommunikation, Dortmund, 1998, ISBN 3-611-00535-5

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. culturecatch.com (accessed February 15, 2015)
  2. ^ Letter to Vladimir Wilshaw 1937; after Martyn, Barrie: Rachmaninoff: composer, pianist, conductor. Aldershot 1990, p. 343, translated