4th Symphony (Myaskovsky)

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4th symphony
key E minor
opus 17th
Sentence names
  • I Andante, mesto con sentimento
  • II Largo, freddo e senza espressione
  • III Allegro energico e marcato
Total duration about 40 minutes
Composed 1917/1918
occupation Symphony orchestra
premiere On February 8, 1925 in Moscow under
the direction of Konstantin Saradschew
dedication "For WW Jakowlew "

The Symphony in E minor, Op. 17, is the fourth symphony by the composer Nikolai Jakowlewitsch Mjaskowski .

History of origin

In 1914 Mjaskowski was very depressed after the completion of the third symphony , but he still had plans for new works. In his notes there is a note of a “silent” and a “grandiose” symphony. Shortly afterwards, Mjaskowski was commissioned by Vladimir Wladimirowitsch Dershanowski to compose an opera based on Dostoyevsky's The Idiot . Nothing came of this project now, since Myaskovsky was drafted with the outbreak of the First World War . In 1916 he was transferred to Reval ( Tallinn ) due to an injury , where he devoted himself to composing again. Dershanowski asked him to return to opera for the time being, but Mjaskowski preferred to start over with a well-known genre after a long break from composing. So he developed the first plans for a fourth symphony. In December 1917 he was transferred to his hometown of Petrograd ( Saint Petersburg ), where he devoted himself to work on two symphonic works: the fourth and fifth symphonies , in which he consciously deal with the experiences he had suffered at the front wanted to. Both plants were completed by April 5, 1918.

analysis

The fourth symphony is most similar in structure to the 27th symphony : the first movement begins with a gloomy introduction, the second movement is in a median major key, the third movement initially seems to be in a median minor key before it turns turns to the minor tonic and the ending is in the major tonic. The tonal language, which in the fourth symphony is very sharp and atonal in places , differs considerably, however. The originally planned “silent” symphony first had to give way to this nervous-expressive symphony. Myaskovsky made an analysis of the work for the magazine Sovremennaja Musyka , in which he says that the three movements are only connected by the character and otherwise use their own thematic material. In the extensive introduction to the first sentence, two topics are introduced. The first theme has a restless character and is played by the solo flute , the second, vocal by the bass. The themes develop into gloomy images that are shaped by the experiences of the war. The second movement begins with a fugato . Short lyrical moments increase the tension and lead to the quick finale. Here the gloomy sound patterns change right up to the festive, jubilant end. The only thing Myaskovsky used from the initial planning for this symphony is a Russian lullaby, which he later also used in the fifth, sixth , seventh , 14th and 22nd symphonies . The expansion of his philosophical horizons through the experiences at the front, which Myaskovsky was to temporarily help to develop his own style, is shown for the first time in this symphony. Mjaskowski said that the music now has a “more objective character”.

Reception and criticism

The first performance of the symphony took place together with the Seventh Symphony in Moscow under the direction of Konstantin Saradschew. Myaskovsky liked this symphony particularly well, in Russia it was considered, together with the fifth symphony, to be the birth of the Soviet symphony. In 1926 the symphony was published by the Moscow State Publishing House. From a performance in Paris in 1933, however, Prokofiev told him that the audience was not enthusiastic about the symphony's symmetry. Myaskovsky replied: “Symmetry is bad when it turns into monotony, but that doesn't exist in the fourth [symphony].” Myaskovsky only achieved international success with the fifth symphony.

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