Symphony in three movements (Stravinsky)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The symphony in three movements (in the original Symphony in Three Movements ) is a work by the Russian composer Igor Stravinsky (1882–1971), which was commissioned in the USA and premiered in New York in 1946 .

Origin and premiere

Igor Stravinsky moved to the United States in 1939 and became an American citizen in 1945. Commissioned by the Philharmonic Society of New York to perform an orchestral work, Stravinsky used a piano concerto planned for 1942 for the composition between 1942 and 1945, which was included in the first movement, as well as a film music that was started in 1943 but never finished, which came up in the 2nd movement. On January 24, 1946, the premiere of the Symphony in Three Movements took place, played by the New York Philharmonic under the direction of the composer (in the same year, a first record was released as a post-production of the premiere on Columbia / CBS ). The German premiere followed in 1948 at the Kranichsteiner (Darmstadt) summer courses under the direction of Werner Egk .

Cast and duration of performance

The score provides for an orchestra with the following scoring: flute piccolo , 2 flutes , 2 oboes , 3 clarinets (3rd also bass clarinet), 2 bassoons , contrabassoon , 4 horns , 3 trumpets , 3 trombones , tuba , timpani , bass drum , piano , harp and strings .

The performance lasts about 24 minutes.

characterization

The toccata-like 1st movement ( Overture, Allegro ), which begins with a signal-like main theme, uses elements of the sonata main movement form (two separate expositions with a common recapitulation) and assigns demanding solo tasks to the piano. In doing so, he reveals Stravinsky's original plan to write a piano concerto. With a playing time of around 12 minutes, it is roughly the same length as the following two movements together.

In the second movement ( Andante ) the harp (and also the flutes) emerges as a soloist with a reduced orchestral line-up, but without the typical harp effects such as arpeggio or glissando , but in a linear part. This movement contains a part composed in 1943 for the scene of the Marian apparition (but not finished) Music for the Hollywood film The Song of Bernadette , based on the novel by Franz Werfels The Song of Bernadette . The sentence is in three parts, the third part is a shortened repetition of the first. A short chordal interlude ( Interlude - L'istesso tempo ) leads to the 3rd movement without a break.

The final movement ( Con moto ) embeds the harp and piano in the full orchestral movement. In its dynamic power and emphasis on the rhythmic element, it is reminiscent of the ballet music Le sacre du printemps, which was premiered in 1913 . A fugato ( alla breve ) leads to the effective ending stretta , which closes with a D flat major chord progression.

In the program booklet for the premiere, Stravinsky wrote: The symphony is not based on a program, it would be in vain to look for such a program in my work. However, it may be that the reaction that our difficult times with their violent and changing events, their despair and hope, their constant torment, their tension and finally relaxation triggered in me has left its mark on this symphony. On the other hand, he stated on the cover of the second recording under his direction in 1961 (again with Columbia / CBS) that he remembered exactly that and how every episode in this symphony is connected in my imagination with a specifically cinematographic impression of the war.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Heinrich Lindlar: Lübbes Strawinsky Lexikon , G. Lübbe Verlag, 1982, ISBN 3-7857-0312-0 , p. 197

literature

  • Hans Renner, Klaus Schweizer (eds.): Reclams Konzertführer, 10th edition, Philipp Reclam jun., Stuttgart 1976, ISBN 3-15-007720-6 , p. 611/612.
  • Hansjürgen Schaefer: Concert book orchestral music. PZ. VEB Dt. Publisher f. Musik, Leipzig 1974, pp. 446/447.

Web links