The Symphony No. 2 (subtitled "True and Eternal Bliss!") by Russian composer Galina Ustvolskaya was composed in 1979 and published in 1982. [1] It received its premiere on 8 October 1980 in Leningrad with the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Vladimir Altschuler.
The symphony is scored for: groups of six flutes (no. 1 doubling piccolo), six oboes and six trumpets; single trombone, tuba and piano; bass drum, tenor drum and reciter. The work lasts approximately 18 minutes.
The symphony is based on the texts of the 11th-century German monk and musician Hermanus Contractus, the reciter repeating the words Господи (Gospodi, 'lord') and Истинная и благая Вечность, вечная же и благая Истина, истинная и вечная Благость! (istinnaya i blagaya vechnost, vechnaya i blagaya istina, istinnaya i blagaya blagost, 'true and excellent eternity, eternal and excellent truth, true and excellent goodness') [2] between homophonic instrumental passages. [3]
Megadisc Classics - Oleg Malov (reciter), Ural Philharmonic Orchestra, Dmitry Liss (conductor)
Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich was a Soviet-era Russian composer and pianist who became internationally known after the premiere of his First Symphony in 1926 and thereafter was regarded as a major composer.
The War Requiem, Op. 66, is a large-scale setting of the Requiem composed by Benjamin Britten mostly in 1961 and completed in January 1962. The War Requiem was performed for the consecration of the new Coventry Cathedral, which was built after the original fourteenth-century structure was destroyed in a World War II bombing raid. The traditional Latin texts are interspersed, in telling juxtaposition, with extra-liturgical poems by Wilfred Owen, written during World War I.
Dmitri Shostakovich's Symphony No. 7 in C major, Op. 60, nicknamed the Leningrad, was begun in Leningrad, completed in the city of Samara in December 1941, and premiered in that city on March 5, 1942. At first dedicated to Lenin, it was eventually submitted in honor of the besieged city of Leningrad, where it was first played under dire circumstances on August 9, 1942, nearly a year into the siege by German forces.
The Symphony No. 6 in B minor, Op. 54 by Dmitri Shostakovich was written in 1939, and first performed in Leningrad on November 5, 1939 by the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra under Yevgeny Mravinsky.
The Symphony No. 13 in B-flat minor, Op. 113 for bass soloist, bass chorus, and large orchestra was composed by Dmitri Shostakovich in 1962. It consists of five movements, each a setting of a Yevgeny Yevtushenko poem that describes aspects of Soviet history and life. Although the symphony is commonly referred to by the nickname Babi Yar, no such subtitle is designated in Shostakovich's manuscript score.
Galina Ivanovna Ustvolskaya was a Russian composer of classical music.
Romeo and Juliet, Op. 64, is a ballet by Sergei Prokofiev based on William Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet. First composed in 1935, it was substantially revised for its Soviet premiere in early 1940. Prokofiev made from the ballet three orchestral suites and a suite for solo piano.
Francesca da Rimini: Symphonic Fantasy after Dante, Op. 32, is a symphonic poem by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. It is a symphonic interpretation of the tragic tale of Francesca da Rimini, a beauty immortalized in Dante's Divine Comedy.
Ralph Vaughan Williams dedicated his Symphony No. 4 in F minor to Arnold Bax.
Ralph Vaughan Williams composed his Symphony in E minor, published as Symphony No. 6, in 1944–47, during and immediately after World War II and revised in 1950. Dedicated to Michael Mullinar, it was first performed, in its original version, by Sir Adrian Boult and the BBC Symphony Orchestra on 21 April 1948. Within a year it had received some 100 performances, including the U.S. premiere by the Boston Symphony Orchestra under Serge Koussevitzky on 7 August 1948. Leopold Stokowski gave the first New York performances the following January with the New York Philharmonic and immediately recorded it, declaring that "this is music that will take its place with the greatest creations of the masters." However, Vaughan Williams, very nervous about this symphony, threatened several times to tear up the draft. At the same time, his programme note for the first performance took a defiantly flippant tone.
The Symphony No. 3 by Russian composer Galina Ustvolskaya was composed in 1983, and published in 1990.
Dmitri Nikolaevich Smirnov was a Russian-British composer and academic teacher, who also published as Dmitri N. Smirnov and D. Smirnov-Sadovsky. He wrote operas, symphonies, string quartets and other chamber music, and vocal music from song to oratorio. Many of his works were inspired by the art of William Blake.
Boris Ivanovich Tishchenko was a Russian and Soviet composer and pianist.
The Cardiff Philharmonic Orchestra (CPO) is an amateur philharmonic orchestra based in Cardiff, Wales. The CPO played its first concert in 1982 and subsequently played over 250 concerts, primarily in Wales but also in England, Switzerland, and France. The CPO has a wide repertoire and appears regularly at Wales' premier concert hall, St. David's Hall.
Dinorah Varsi (15 November 1939 - 17 June 2013) was a Uruguayan classical pianist.
The six piano sonatas by Galina Ustvolskaya were composed over the course of 43 years – each showing a gradual progression of the composer's style.
The Symphony No. 1 by Russian composer Galina Ustvolskaya was written in 1955.
Russian composer Galina Ustvolskaya's Symphony No. 4 was composed between 1985 and 1987.
Symphony No. 5 by Russian composer Galina Ustvolskaya was composed between 1989 and 1990.
The Five Fragments, Op. 42 is a suite for small orchestra composed on June 9, 1935, by Dmitri Shostakovich. It was the only work, apart from film music, that he composed that year. He approached it as preparatory work for the composition of the final version of his Symphony No. 4.