Symphony No. 1 (Dvorak)

Dvorak wrote his first symphony at the age of twenty-four for a competition in Germany (although there is no sufficient historical evidence for this fact) . After sending the manuscript there, he never saw her again, believing that she died or was irretrievably lost. Later, he included the symphony in the list of his early works, which he considered not preserved. Part of her material was used by him in Silhouettes op. 8, and rhythmic figures can be traced even in the Dies irae requiem , written twenty-five years later. Some motives of the first symphony can be heard in the ninth .

When Dvorak was asked many years later what he had done, realizing that this symphony would not return, he replied: “Nothing. I sat down and wrote a new symphony . ” If this anecdote is reliable, then one of the most important features of the composer's character is manifested in him - his unbending will. However, there is also an opinion that the symphony became a “victim” of one of those periods in the life of Dvorak, when he destroyed old compositions, considering them unsuccessful . In any case, he was firmly convinced that the work died.

However, in 1882, Rudolf Dvořák , a twenty-two-year-old Orientalist who had nothing to do with the composer, stumbled upon a manuscript from a second-hand book dealer in Leipzig and bought it. At that time, Antonin Dvorak was not yet very famous. Although he had already written six symphonies, only one of them ( sixth ) was published, and only three ( third , fifth and sixth ) were performed. Rudolf Dvořák left the manuscript found and owned it, not to mention it to anyone, for thirty-eight years. In 1920, he, already a doctor and professor at Charles University, died, and she went to his son. The latter made her known to the public in 1923, nineteen years after the death of the composer.

Although the authenticity of the symphony is confirmed and does not raise any doubts, it was first performed only on October 4, 1936 in Brno , conducted by M. Sachs (Croatian opera conductor), and the text was very truncated ^[3] . The symphony was published only in 1961 in the complete works of Dvorak. Thus, it is the last published and last performed Dvorak symphony. Entirely, without cuts, the symphony was recorded for the first time in 1966 performed by the London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by I. Curtes .

The composer himself never heard it and could not revise it. The name “Zlonitsa Bells” is absent in the manuscript, but it is believed that later Dvorak called it that. The name comes from a village in Bohemia , where he lived in 1853-1856 and where the foundations of his musical education were laid. Initially, the symphony consisted of three parts, Allegretto was added later. The first part, Allegro (with the introduction of Maestoso ), in the original version is the longest part among all Dvorak symphonies. It takes 44 pages of the score, and its implementation takes 19 minutes. The usual performance of the entire symphony lasts about 50 minutes.

The symphony consists of four parts.

• I. Maestoso - Allegro.
• II. Adagio di molto.
• III. Allegretto.
• IV. Finale. Allegro animato.

The symphony is written for a regular early romance orchestra.

• Symphony No. 1 by Antonin Dvořák: sheet music at International Music Score Library Project