Symphony No. 3 (Shostakovich)
The Symphony No. 3 in E Flat Major, Opus 20, subtitled " On May 1, " is a symphony by Dmitri Shostakovich. Similar to the second symphony, it is an experimental work with an orchestra set and an immediately subsequent finale with choir.
Emergence and performances
The work was premiered by the St. Petersburg Philharmonic and the Academy Capella Choir under Alexander Gauk on November 6, 1931 at the House of Culture Moscow - Narva in St. Petersburg and initially met with positive reactions. The score was published two years later in print. 1932 Leopold Stokowski conducted the work for the first time in the U.S., but without the final chorus. Consequence performances of the symphony met many times with incomprehension and rejection; while Western critics einordneten the piece as a typical propaganda piece, there were also Russian critic of the work, including the composer Sergei Prokofiev, who criticized the frequent two voices of the piece .. In the Soviet Union there were only two performances of the work, it was only in the sixties listed it again.
Description of the work
The symphony can be analytically divided into four sections according to the tempo:
The symphony takes about 25-30 minutes.
The finale uses a text by Semyon Kirsanof who praises the First of May and the revolution. The interpretation is problematic: in a letter to Boleslaw Jaworski said Shostakovich, the work " pressures from the spirit of peaceful reconstruction "; on the other hand is the most material in the finale takes precedence, decorated in dark tones. In contrast to the atonal 2nd Symphony, the Symphony No. 3 is composed almost entirely tonal, is experimentally the piece yet, as it is not carried out in the classical manner issues, but forms and motifs satirizes and caricatures. The symphony begins with a clarinet solo, accompanied by a few bars of Pizzicatoakkorden. Later, the transaction will give a clarinet duet, different motives are varied, but appear in small membered manner always new sections.