FIRST PERFORMANCE

New Zealand Listener, Volume 21, Issue 534, 16 September 1949, Page 8

FIRST PERFORMANCE

ALINNIKOV’S Symphony No. 1 in G Minor (which was first heard hete ina studio broadcast by the Wellington Group of the National Orchestra) will have its first public performance by the full Orchestra at the second concert in Dunedin

. this month. The work is discussed here in outline

by

BESSIE

POLLARD

VASSILY KALINNIKOV was born in Russia in 1866, In 1893 he was appointed conductor of the Italian Opera in Moscow, but was forced to resign because of a tubercular lung infection in the following year, after which he went to live in Southern Russia. In 1897, he produced his First Symphony, which, following its initial performance in Kiev, was presented in Vienna, Paris and London with tremendous success. Unfortunately Kalinnikov did not live long enough to fulfil the extraordinary promise revealed in this First Symphony-he died in 1901 at the early age of 35. The four movements of the G Minor Symphony are imbued with a strong Russian national flavour, the first of these (Allegro moderato) being based on two splendid melodic subjects. The main theme is announced at the outset by strings ("A" below), while the subsidiary subject appears in bar 45, given out by horn, violas and ’cellos ("B" below)-

. The second movement (Andante. commodamente) has been described as one of the most lyric pages in the entire symphonic repertory. It begins with an actompaniment figure played by harp and strings. In bar 2 the cor anglais enters with a haunting theme ("A" below), and in bar 30, the oboe announces an equally lovely theme ("B" below)-

The Scherzo has an almost peasant lustiness, The first section begins with a theme allotted mainly to strings (‘‘A" below), while the main melody of the Trio is given to the oboe ("B" below)- i

The Finale (Allegro moderato) acts as a summation of the whole work by ingeniously combining themes from the preceding movements with two outstanding melodic subject§. The first of these (below) appears in bar 17 (following a surging introduction) announted by woodwind and strings- ™~

In bar 36, the clarinet gives out the subsidiary theme of the Finale-

Symphony No. 1 in G Minor by Kalinnikov will be heard at the second Dunedin concert of the National Orchestra, conducted by Andersen Tyrer, on Tuesday, September 20. %