8th Symphony (Myaskovsky)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
8th symphony
key A major
opus 26th
Sentence names
  • I Andante
  • II Allegro risoluto e con spirito
  • III Adagio
  • IV Allegro deciso
Total duration approx. 52 minutes
Composed 1924/1925
occupation Symphony orchestra ( 3333/6331 / Pk / Schl / Hrf / Str )
premiere May 23, 1926 under the direction
of Konstantin Saradschew
dedication "For Sergei Sergejewitsch Popov "

The Symphony in A major, Op. 26 is the eighth symphony by the composer Nikolai Jakowlewitsch Mjaskowski .

History of origin

The eighth symphony was the first symphony that Myaskovsky wrote as a member of the ASM (Association for Contemporary Music). The sketches of the work were completed on August 18, 1924. The theme of the symphony was the story of Stepan Razin and Mjaskowski used a melody which he had initially taken for a song about the leader of the uprising against the tsarist empire. However, it later turned out that the song had a different content and the composer had to rework large parts of the symphony. Work on the work was delayed and Mjaskowski was only able to finish it in 1925. By dealing with a Russian popular uprising, Myaskovsky followed a trend of the 1920s. M. Triodin wrote an opera on the same subject and Konstantin Trenjow and Andrei Pashchenko treated the story of the Pugachev uprising . At the time of the Eighth Symphony, there was a real enthusiasm for Myaskovsky among his students in Moscow and especially at the Conservatory . This was mainly due to his pedagogical skills and the success of the previous symphonies and guaranteed the composer the support of the audience in subsequent performances, which regularly included many of his students.

analysis

The monumental eighth symphony is the second longest work of Myaskowski after the sixth symphony and only the second major symphony after the fifth . As with the sixth, also in four movements, Mjaskowski swaps the sequence of movements so that the Scherzo comes in second and the slow movement in third.

Myaskovsky described the first movement as follows: "... epic, narrative, steppe, nature." The subject material is very close to folk songs and is more in F sharp minor than in A major. The movement follows the sonata form . The images of nature that Mjaskowski creates here form the basis for the story of Stepan Razin.

Boris Michailowitsch Kustodijew : Stenka Rasin (1918), oil on canvas

The Scherzo follows the ABA form and is in 7/4 time . The themes that all have to do with the theme of "water" are the melodies A duckling swam across the sea and O does not spawn, you little pike, my little fish from Rimski-Korsakov's Hundred Russian Folk Songs and a tune from his student days. The Scherzo depicts the scene in which Rasin's boats float on the river and he finally throws his mistress, a Persian princess, into the Volga .

In the third movement, Mjaskowski moves away from the original and creates a lyrical atmosphere. The movement also has the form ABA, but it differs from the Scherzo mainly in that the full and sometimes chaotic orchestral sound gives way to sparing and sometimes solo instrumentation. So the main theme is initially presented by the cor anglais. This theme is a Bashkir folk song that is later changed to take on oriental features. This shows Mjaskowski's closeness to the classic models who often turned to the processing of oriental material (e.g. Rimsky-Korsakow in Scheherazade ).

The finale describes Razin’s struggle and death. According to Mjaskowski's own statement, the thematic material comes from, among other things, “some Volga songs”. The heroic deeds of the fighters are at the center of this rondo ; Razin’s death is only dealt with in the coda and presented with an excessive closing chord .

The eighth symphony has a much sharper tonal language than the earlier symphonies, even if the lyrical passages are still very present. Mjaskowski proves his outstanding instrumentation skills here, which he says is "particularly brilliant" in the finale. He wrote to Prokofiev : "In this symphony I tried hard to see the orchestra as something living and individual and (analogous to Scriabin !) To bring to light" hidden aspirations. "

Reception and criticism

The work was premiered on May 23, 1926 and, like all symphonies of the 1920s, was a success. The symphony was particularly well received by the younger audience, as many of the composer's students were among them. Mjaskowski reports on the premiere that the Scherzo was an "unimaginable mess". Like almost all earlier symphonies, the eighth became known beyond the borders of Russia. So it was later performed by Friedrich Stock in America.

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