Symphony No. 1 in D minor, Op. 13 by Sergei Rachmaninoff
Rachmaninoff completed this symphony in 1895, with the premiere performance taking place in March of 1897 in St. Petersburg. At this point in time Rachmaninoff had only made one attempt at th…
Symphony No. 1 in D minor, Op. 13 by Sergei Rachmaninoff
Rachmaninoff completed this symphony in 1895, with the premiere performance taking place in March of 1897 in St. Petersburg. At this point in time Rachmaninoff had only made one attempt at the symphonic format, which was done as part of his education at the Moscow Conservatory. The manuscript for this earlier work has been lost, with only one movement being found and retitled the ‘Youth Symphony”. After graduating from the conservatory Rachmaninoff was eager to create another symphonic work to display his talents to the public. This symphony No. 1 would take Rachmaninoff almost 10 months to complete making it one of the longest periods that the composer would spend on a single work.
Rachmaninoff was eager for this work to make a considerable impression and as such he approached Alexander Glazunov to conduct the work at the premiere. Glazunov was a fellow composer and protégé of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. This is also partially the reason for the premiere taking place in St. Petersburg, as Glazunov was residing there in 1897.
Despite the preparations by Rachmaninoff, the premiere performance was considered a failure. The audience in St. Petersburg at the time had begun to favour the music of the ‘Belyayev circle’, a group of Russian composers who focused on ‘progressive’ music, essentially music made for the purposes of academic appreciation. The more conventional Rachmaninoff was considered out of touch in this new musical climate. Glazunov had made only a minimal attempt at rehearsing the symphony, giving more attention to two other works also receiving their premiere at the 1897 performance. Glazunov reportedly cut several sections of the work, but did not notify all members of the orchestra prior to the event. To make matters worse Glazunov was apparently drunk during the performance.
This work is comprised of four movements:
I. Grave – Allegro non troppo
II. Allegro animato
III. Larghetto
IV. Allegro con fuoco
