Myakovsky's last symphony

Synopsis

On today’s date in 1950, the 27th symphony of the Russian composer Nikolai Yakovlevich Miaskovsky received its premiere performance in Moscow. Miaskovsky had died a few months earlier, so he never got to hear the last in the line of symphonies he had begun back in 1908 with his Symphony No. 1.

Miaskovsky was born in 1881; he was 10 years older than Prokofiev and 25 years older than Shostakovich. Like his more famous colleagues, as a Soviet artist working under Lenin and Stalin, Miaskovsky was often criticized by Communist ideologues if his music was judged inappropriate for the masses. Despite the risks of writing in so public a musical form at a time when one false step might land a composer in a labor camp (or worse), Miaskovsky kept on writing symphonies. “It was in this sphere that I would always be able to express myself with the greatest readiness,” he once said.

Miaskovsky’s 27 Symphonies are not very well-known in the West. Maybe the problem is simply that there are so many of them. Or maybe it’s the introspective tone of much of his music. The final assessment of Miaskovsky as a composer reads as follows in Grove’s Dictionary: “The muted strings, the reticence, the austere reserve of his expression presupposes in the listener a reciprocal concentration and a tendency toward a philosophical disposition, but these traits promise for Miakovsky’s music a muted but enduring glory.”

Music Played in Today's Program

Nikolai Myaskovsky (1881 – 1950) Symphony No. 27 USSR Academic Symphony; Yevgeny Svetlanov, cond. Olympia 168

On This Day

Births

• 1837 - French composer Emil Waldteufel, in Strasbourg;

• 1882 - Spanish composer and pianist Joaquín Turina, in Seville;

Premieres

• 1721 - Handel: opera "Floridante" in London at the King's Theater in the Haymarket (Gregorian date: Dec. 20);

• 1832 - Berlioz: the lyric monodrama "Lélio, ou Le Retour à la vie" (Lelio, or The Return to Life" - performed with "Symphonie fantastique" as its sequel - in Paris, with François-Antoine Habaneck conducting and the composer performing as an extra timpanist;

• 1836 - Glinka: opera “A Life for the Tsar,” at the Main Theater in St. Petersburg (Julian date: Nov. 27); This work was originally to be titled “Ivan Susanin” after its lead character, but as a tribute to the Tsar was retitled (After the Russian Revolution, it was staged under its original title);

• 1842 - Glinka: opera “Russlan and Ludmilla,” at the Main Theater in St. Petesrburg (Julian date: Nov. 27);

• 1900 - Debussy: "Nuages" and "Fêtes" (two of the three "Nocturnes" for orchestra), in Paris at a Lamoureux concert conducted by Camille Chevillard;

• 1905 - R. Strauss: opera "Salome," in Dresden at the Hofoper, conducted by Ernst von Schuch;

• 1906 - Glazunov: Symphony No. 8, in St. Petersburg (Gregorian date: Dec. 22);

• 1926 - Milhaud: "Carnival d'Aix" for piano and orchestra, in New York, with the composer as the piano soloist;

• 1928 - Castelnuovo-Tedesco: Piano Concerto No. 1, in Rome;

• 1938 - Cage: "Trio for Percussion," in Santa Monica, Calif.;

• 1939 - Cage: "First Construction (in Metal)," for six percussionists, in Seattle;

• 1942 - Copland: "Danzón Cubano" for Two Pianos at a League of Composers 20th Anniversary concert at the Town Hall Forum, with the composer and Leonard Bernstein; At this concert, the piece was billed as "Birthday Piece (on Cuban Themes");

• 1949 - Barber: Piano Sonata, by Vladimir Horowitz, in Havana, Cuba;

• 1950 - Miaskovsky: Symphony No. 27, posthumously, in Moscow;

• 1969 - Peter Maxwell Davies: "Vsalii Icones," in London;

• 1974 - Lou Harrison: Suite for Violin with American Gamelan, at Lone Mountain College, San Francisco, with violinist Lauren Jakey;