3rd Symphony (Shostakovich)

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The 3rd Symphony in E flat major, Op. 20 , subtitled “For May 1st” is a symphony by Dmitri Shostakovich . Similar to the second symphony , it is an experimental work with an orchestral setting and a finale with choir immediately following it.

Origin and performances

The work was premiered by the Leningrad Philharmonic and the Academy Capella Choir under Alexander Gauk on January 21, 1930 in the House of Culture Moscow-Narva in Leningrad and initially met with positive reactions. The score appeared in print two years later. In 1932 Leopold Stokowski conducted the work for the first time in the USA, but without the final chorus. Follow-up performances of the symphony often met with incomprehension and rejection; while Western critics classified the piece as a typical propaganda work, there were also Russian critics of the work, including the composer Sergei Prokofiev , who criticized the frequent two-part nature of the piece. There were only two performances of the work in the Soviet Union; it was only performed again in the 1960s.

Work description

The symphony can be analytically divided into four sections according to the tempos :

  1. Allegretto - Allegro
  2. Andante
  3. largo
  4. Moderato: "V perwoje Perwoje maja"

The symphony lasts about 25-30 minutes.

The final uses a text by Semyon Kirsanov , of the May Day praises and the revolution. The interpretation is problematic: in a letter to Boleslaw Jaworski , Shostakovich said that the work "expresses the spirit of peaceful reconstruction"; on the other hand, most of the material that has priority in the finale is designed in dark tones. In contrast to the atonal 2nd symphony, the 3rd symphony is composed almost entirely tonally, but the piece is experimental, as it does not deal with themes in a classical way, but satirizes and caricatures forms and motifs. The symphony begins with a clarinet solo, which after a few bars is accompanied by pizzicato chords. This later becomes a clarinet duet, various motifs are varied, but new sections appear again and again in small-scale ways.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Krzysztof Meyer: Dmitri Schostakowitsch, p. 145

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