Musical genres: Symphony. Atsamaz Makoev: a music festival will unite the peoples of the North Caucasus A symphony of classical composers consists of

The Mariinsky Theater is hosting the III International Music Festival for Children “Magic Symphony” today. Children sing, play and dance on stage, who just recently could not do this, because from birth they suffer from severe hearing impairment or irreversible deafness. Cochlear implantation and rehabilitation, that is, the help of doctors, teachers, social workers and parents, allowed them to immerse themselves in the world of sounds and music.

Photo: Parent Association “I Hear the World!”

It restores hearing to children with congenital deafness, and thanks to rehabilitation they learn not only to speak, but even to play musical instruments and sing. Children can show off their talents at the International Music Festival "Magic Symphony", which is being held in St. Petersburg for the third time - this time in the concert hall of the Mariinsky Theater.

As the organizers say, for children with hearing impairments, creativity becomes not only a way of rehabilitation, but also an opportunity for self-expression.

— When raising and rehabilitating children with hearing impairments, teachers conduct a lot of music lessons. But it turned out that none of them listen to music for pleasure; children perceive it as exercise,” says Inna Koroleva, chief researcher at the St. Petersburg Research Institute of Ear, Throat, Nose and Speech. — The “Magic Symphony” music festival changed children’s attitude towards music - now they started playing for themselves. Another important point is that parents began to work harder with their children in order to get to the music festival.

Interest in the festival is growing every year. The number of applications has more than doubled compared to 2017 - if then 126 children wanted to perform a creative act, then this year the organizers have already counted more than 200 applicants. Children from 66 cities in 6 countries around the world wanted to participate in the festival.

As a result, today about 25 children with artificial hearing perform at the Mariinsky Theater. Along with them on stage are professional musicians and artists. In previous years, the charity project was supported by Tatyana Bulanova and Mikhail Boyarsky. This time, the state song and dance ensemble “Barynya”, the vocal ensemble “Philharmonic”, People’s Artist of Russia Yakov Dubravin and others will perform at the festival.

This is the first time that Russian children have participated in such a creative competition. Inspired, the parent association “I Hear the World!” for the first time, which immediately received the award as “Best Social Project 2016”. The festival became the winner in the competition “Best Social Projects of Russia” in the category “Medical and Social Projects”, and in this it entered the top 100 best regional projects in the program of the Commissioner for Children’s Rights under the President of the Russian Federation “Vector “CHILDHOOD-2018”.

The organizers want to develop the project further. For example, and. O. General Director of the Presidential Library Valentin Sidorin proposed next year, together with the Research Institute of Ear, Throat, Nose and Speech, to hold a forum that would celebrate the merits of not only children with artificial hearing, but also the specialists who made these achievements possible. Among them are surgeons and doctors, teachers of the deaf, speech therapists and psychologists.

The organizers of this festival “Magic Symphony” are “Petersburg Concert”, the Research Institute of Ear, Throat, Nose and Speech, and the parent association “I Hear the World!” and the almanac of social partnership “Russian Maecenas”. The venue for the main concert was provided by the artistic director, director of the Mariinsky Theater Valery Gergiev.

Doctor Peter

The project was implemented using a grant from St. Petersburg

Symphony is the most monumental form of instrumental music. Moreover, this statement is true for any era - both for the work of the Viennese classics, and for the romantics, and for composers of later movements...

Alexander Maikapar

Musical genres: Symphony

The word symphony comes from the Greek "symphonia" and has several meanings. Theologians call this a guide to the use of words found in the Bible. The term is translated by them as agreement and agreement. Musicians translate this word as consonance.

The topic of this essay is the symphony as a musical genre. It turns out that in a musical context, the term symphony contains several different meanings. Thus, Bach called his wonderful pieces for the clavier symphonies, meaning that they represent a harmonic combination, a combination - consonance - of several (in this case, three) voices. But this use of the term was an exception already in the time of Bach - in the first half of the 18th century. Moreover, in the work of Bach himself, it denoted music of a completely different style.

And now we have come close to the main topic of our essay - the symphony as a large multi-part orchestral work. In this sense, the symphony appeared around 1730, when the orchestral introduction to the opera was separated from the opera itself and turned into an independent orchestral work, taking as a basis a three-part overture of the Italian type.

The kinship of the symphony with the overture is manifested not only in the fact that each of the three sections of the overture: fast-slow-fast (and sometimes even the slow introduction to it) turned into an independent separate part of the symphony, but also in the fact that the overture gave the symphony an idea contrast of the main themes (usually masculine and feminine) and thus endowed the symphony with the dramatic (and dramaturgical) tension and intrigue necessary for music of large forms.

Constructive principles of the symphony

Mountains of musicological books and articles are devoted to the analysis of the form of the symphony and its evolution. The artistic material represented by the symphony genre is enormous both in quantity and variety of forms. Here we can characterize the most general principles.

1. Symphony is the most monumental form of instrumental music. Moreover, this statement is true for any era - for the work of the Viennese classics, and for the romantics, and for composers of later movements. The Eighth Symphony (1906) by Gustav Mahler, for example, grandiose in artistic design, was written for a huge - even according to the ideas of the early 20th century - cast of performers: a large symphony orchestra expanded to include 22 woodwinds and 17 brass instruments, the score also includes two mixed choirs and boys choir; to this are added eight soloists (three sopranos, two altos, a tenor, a baritone and a bass) and a backstage orchestra. It is often called the "Symphony of a Thousand Participants". In order to perform it, it is necessary to rebuild the stage of even very large concert halls.

2. Since the symphony is a multi-movement work (three-, often four-, and sometimes five-movement, for example, Beethoven’s “Pastoral” or Berlioz’s “Fantastique”), it is clear that such a form must be extremely elaborate in order to eliminate monotony and monotony. (A one-movement symphony is very rare; an example is Symphony No. 21 by N. Myaskovsky.)

A symphony always contains many musical images, ideas and themes. They are one way or another distributed between the parts, which, in turn, on the one hand, contrast with each other, on the other, form a kind of higher integrity, without which the symphony will not be perceived as a single work.

To give an idea of ​​the composition of the symphony's movements, we provide information about several masterpieces...

Mozart. Symphony No. 41 “Jupiter”, C major
I. Allegro vivace
II. Andante cantabile
III. Menuetto. Allegretto - Trio
IV. Molto Allegro

Beethoven. Symphony No. 3, E-flat major, Op. 55 ("Heroic")
I. Allegro con brio
II. Marcia funebre: Adagio assai
III. Scherzo: Allegro vivace
IV. Finale: Allegro molto, Poco Andante

Schubert. Symphony No. 8 in B minor (the so-called “Unfinished”)
I. Allegro moderato
II. Andante con moto

Berlioz. Fantastic Symphony
I. Dreams. Passion: Largo - Allegro agitato e appassionato assai - Tempo I - Religiosamente
II. Ball: Valse. Allegro non troppo
III. Scene in the fields: Adagio
IV. Procession to execution: Allegretto non troppo
V. A Dream on the Night of the Sabbath: Larghetto - Allegro - Allegro
assai - Allegro - Lontana - Ronde du Sabbat - Dies irae

Borodin. Symphony No. 2 “Bogatyrskaya”
I. Allegro
II. Scherzo. Prestissimo
III. Andante
IV. Finale. Allegro

3. The first part is the most complex in design. In a classical symphony it is usually written in the form of a so-called sonata Allegro. The peculiarity of this form is that at least two main themes collide and develop in it, which in the most general terms can be spoken of as expressing the masculine (this theme is usually called main party, since for the first time it takes place in the main key of the work) and the feminine principle (this side party- it sounds in one of the related main keys). These two main topics are somehow connected, and the transition from the main to the secondary is called connecting party. The presentation of all this musical material usually has a certain conclusion, this episode is called final game.

If we listen to a classical symphony with an attention that allows us to immediately distinguish these structural elements from the first acquaintance with a given work, then we will discover modifications of these main themes during the course of the first movement. With the development of the sonata form, some composers - and Beethoven the first of them - were able to identify feminine elements in the theme of a masculine character and vice versa, and in the course of developing these themes, “illuminate” them in different ways. This is perhaps the brightest - both artistic and logical - embodiment of the principle of dialectics.

The entire first part of the symphony is constructed as a three-part form, in which first the main themes are presented to the listener, as if exhibited (that’s why this section is called exposition), then they undergo development and transformation (the second section is development) and ultimately return - either in their original form , or in some new capacity (reprise). This is the most general scheme, to which each of the great composers contributed something of their own. Therefore, we will not find two identical constructions not only among different composers, but also among the same one. (Of course, if we are talking about great creators.)

4. After the usually stormy first part of the symphony, there must certainly be a place for lyrical, calm, sublime music, in a word, flowing in slow motion. At first, this was the second part of the symphony, and this was considered a rather strict rule. In the symphonies of Haydn and Mozart, the slow movement is precisely the second. If there are only three movements in a symphony (as in Mozart's 1770s), then the slow movement really turns out to be the middle one. If the symphony has four movements, then in the early symphonies a minuet was placed between the slow movement and the fast finale. Later, starting with Beethoven, the minuet was replaced by a rapid scherzo. However, at some point the composers decided to deviate from this rule, and then the slow movement became the third in the symphony, and the scherzo became the second movement, as we see (or rather, hear) in A. Borodin’s “Bogatyr” symphony.

5. The finales of classical symphonies are characterized by lively movement with features of dance and song, often in a folk spirit. Sometimes the finale of a symphony turns into a true apotheosis, as in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony (Op. 125), where a choir and solo singers were introduced into the symphony. Although this was an innovation for the symphony genre, it was not for Beethoven himself: even earlier he composed the Fantasia for piano, choir and orchestra (Op. 80). The symphony contains the ode “To Joy” by F. Schiller. The finale is so dominant in this symphony that the three movements preceding it are perceived as a huge introduction to it. The performance of this finale with its call to “Hug, millions!” at the opening of the UN General Session - the best expression of the ethical aspirations of humanity!

Great creators of symphonies

Joseph Haydn

Joseph Haydn lived a long life (1732–1809). Half a century of it creative activity outlined by two important circumstances: the death of J. S. Bach (1750), which ended the era of polyphony, and the premiere of Beethoven’s Third (“Eroic”) Symphony, which marked the beginning of the era of romanticism. During these fifty years the old musical forms - mass, oratorio and concerto grosso- were replaced by new ones: symphony, sonata and string quartet. The main place where works written in these genres were now heard were not churches and cathedrals, as before, but the palaces of nobles and aristocrats, which, in turn, led to a change in musical values ​​- poetry and subjective expressiveness came into fashion.

In all this, Haydn was a pioneer. Often - although not quite correctly - he is called the “father of the symphony”. Some composers, for example Jan Stamitz and other representatives of the so-called Mannheim school (Mannheim in the mid-18th century was the citadel of early symphonism), had already begun composing three-part symphonies much earlier than Haydn. However, Haydn raised this form to a much higher level and showed the way to the future. His early works bear the stamp of the influence of C. F. E. Bach, and the later ones anticipate a completely different style - Beethoven.

It is noteworthy that he began to create compositions that acquired important musical significance when he passed his fortieth birthday. Fertility, diversity, unpredictability, humor, inventiveness - this is what makes Haydn head and shoulders above the level of his contemporaries.

Many of Haydn's symphonies received titles. Let me give you a few examples.

A. Abakumov. Play Haydn (1997)

The famous symphony No. 45 was called “Farewell” (or “Symphony by Candlelight”): on the last pages of the symphony’s finale, the musicians, one after another, stop playing and leave the stage, leaving only two violins, ending the symphony with a question chord la - F sharp. Haydn himself told a semi-humorous version of the origin of the symphony: Prince Nikolai Esterhazy once for a very long time did not let the orchestra members leave Eszterhazy for Eisenstadt, where their families lived. Wanting to help his subordinates, Haydn composed the conclusion of the “Farewell” symphony in the form of a subtle hint to the prince - a request for leave expressed in musical images. The hint was understood, and the prince gave the appropriate orders.

In the era of romanticism, the humorous nature of the symphony was forgotten, and it began to be endowed with a tragic meaning. Schumann wrote in 1838 about the musicians extinguishing their candles and leaving the stage during the finale of the symphony: “And no one laughed at the same time, since there was no time for laughter.”

Symphony No. 94 “With a Timpani Strike, or Surprise” received its name due to the humorous effect in the slow movement - its peaceful mood is disrupted by a sharp timpani strike. No. 96 “Miracle” began to be called that due to random circumstances. At the concert in which Haydn was to conduct this symphony, the audience, with his appearance, rushed from the middle of the hall to the empty first rows, and the middle was empty. At that moment, a chandelier collapsed right in the center of the hall, only two listeners were slightly injured. Exclamations were heard in the hall: “Miracle! Miracle!" Haydn himself was deeply impressed by his involuntary salvation of many people.

The name of symphony No. 100 “Military,” on the contrary, is not at all accidental - its extreme parts with their military signals and rhythms clearly paint a musical picture of the camp; even the Minuet here (third movement) is of a rather dashing “army” type; the inclusion of Turkish percussion instruments in the symphony's score delighted London music lovers (cf. Mozart's "Turkish March").

No. 104 “Salomon”: isn’t this a tribute to the impresario - John Peter Salomon, who did so much for Haydn? True, Salomon himself became so famous thanks to Haydn that he was buried in Westminster Abbey “for bringing Haydn to London,” as indicated on his tombstone. Therefore, the symphony should be called exactly “With A lomon”, and not “Solomon”, as is sometimes found in concert programs, which incorrectly orients listeners to the biblical king.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Mozart wrote his first symphonies when he was eight years old, and his last at thirty-two. Their total number is more than fifty, but several youthful ones have not survived or have not yet been discovered.

If you take the advice of Alfred Einstein, the greatest expert on Mozart, and compare this number with only nine symphonies by Beethoven or four by Brahms, it will immediately become clear that the concept of the symphony genre is different for these composers. But if we single out Mozart’s symphonies that, like Beethoven’s, are really addressed to a certain ideal audience, in other words, to all of humanity ( humanitas), then it turns out that Mozart also wrote no more than ten such symphonies (Einstein himself speaks of “four or five”!). "Prague" and the triad of symphonies of 1788 (No. 39, 40, 41) are an amazing contribution to the treasury of world symphony.

Of these last three symphonies, the middle one, No. 40, is the best known. Only “A Little Night Serenade” and the Overture to the opera “The Marriage of Figaro” can compete with it in popularity. Although the reasons for popularity are always difficult to determine, one of them in this case may be the choice of tone. This symphony is written in G minor - a rarity for Mozart, who preferred cheerful and joyful major keys. Of the forty-one symphonies, only two were written in a minor key (this does not mean that Mozart did not write minor music in major symphonies).

His piano concertos have similar statistics: out of twenty-seven, only two have a minor key. Considering the dark days in which this symphony was created, it may seem that the choice of tonality was predetermined. However, there is more to this creation than just the everyday sorrows of any one person. We must remember that in that era, German and Austrian composers increasingly found themselves at the mercy of the ideas and images of the aesthetic movement in literature, called “Sturm and Drang.”

The name of the new movement was given by F. M. Klinger’s drama “Sturm and Drang” (1776). Appeared large number dramas with incredibly passionate and often inconsistent heroes. Composers were also fascinated by the idea of ​​expressing with sounds the dramatic intensity of passions, heroic struggle, and often longing for unrealizable ideals. It is not surprising that in this atmosphere Mozart also turned to minor keys.

Unlike Haydn, who was always confident that his symphonies would be performed - either in front of Prince Esterhazy, or, like the "London ones", in front of the London public - Mozart never had such a guarantee, and despite this, he was amazingly prolific. If his early symphonies are often entertaining or, as we would now say, “light” music, then his later symphonies are the “highlight of the program” of any symphony concert.

Ludwig van Beethoven

Beethoven created nine symphonies. There are probably more books written about them than there are notes in this heritage. The greatest of his symphonies are the Third (E-flat major, “Eroica”), the Fifth (C minor), the Sixth (F major, “Pastoral”), and the Ninth (D minor).

...Vienna, May 7, 1824. Premiere of the Ninth Symphony. Surviving documents testify to what happened then. The very announcement of the upcoming premiere was noteworthy: “The Grand Academy of Music, which is being organized by Mr. Ludwig van Beethoven, will take place tomorrow, May 7th.<...>The soloists will be Ms. Sontag and Ms. Unger, as well as Messrs. Heitzinger and Seipelt. The concertmaster of the orchestra is Mr. Schuppanzig, the conductor is Mr. Umlauf.<...>Mr. Ludwig van Beethoven will personally take part in directing the concert.”

This direction eventually resulted in Beethoven conducting the symphony himself. But how could this happen? After all, by that time Beethoven was already deaf. Let's turn to eyewitness accounts.

“Beethoven conducted himself, or rather, he stood in front of the conductor’s stand and gesticulated like crazy,” wrote Joseph Böhm, the orchestra’s violinist who took part in that historic concert. - First he stretched upward, then he almost squatted, waving his arms and stamping his feet, as if he himself wanted to play all the instruments at the same time and sing for the whole choir. In fact, Umlauf was in charge of everything, and we musicians only looked after his baton. Beethoven was so excited that he was completely unaware of what was happening around him and did not pay attention to the stormy applause, which barely reached his consciousness due to his hearing impairment. At the end of each number they had to tell him exactly when to turn around and thank the audience for the applause, which he did very awkwardly.”

At the end of the symphony, when the applause was already thundering, Caroline Unger approached Beethoven and gently stopped his hand - he still continued to conduct, not realizing that the performance was over! - and turned to face the hall. Then it became obvious to everyone that Beethoven was completely deaf...

The success was enormous. It took police intervention to end the applause.

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

In the genre of symphony P.I. Tchaikovsky created six works. Last Symphony - Sixth, B minor, Op. 74 - called “Pathetic” by him.

In February 1893, Tchaikovsky came up with a plan for a new symphony, which became the Sixth. In one of his letters, he says: “During the journey, I had the idea of ​​​​another symphony... with a program that will remain a mystery to everyone... This program is very imbued with subjectivity, and often during the journey, mentally composing it, I am very cried."

The sixth symphony was recorded by the composer very quickly. In just a week (February 4–11) he recorded the entire first part and half of the second. Then the work was interrupted for some time by a trip from Klin, where the composer then lived, to Moscow. Returning to Klin, he worked on the third part from February 17 to 24. Then there was another break, and in the second half of March the composer completed the finale and the second part. The orchestration had to be postponed somewhat because Tchaikovsky had several more trips planned. On August 12, the orchestration was completed.

The first performance of the Sixth Symphony took place in St. Petersburg on October 16, 1893, conducted by the author. Tchaikovsky wrote after the premiere: “Something strange is happening with this symphony! It’s not that I didn’t like it, but it caused some confusion. As for me, I am prouder of it than of any other composition of mine.” Further events turned out tragically: nine days after the premiere of the symphony, P. Tchaikovsky died suddenly.

V. Baskin, the author of the first biography of Tchaikovsky, who was present at both the premiere of the symphony and its first performance after the composer’s death, when E. Napravnik conducted (this performance became triumphant), wrote: “We remember the sad mood that reigned in the hall of the Assembly of the Nobility On November 6, when the “Pathetique” symphony, which was not fully appreciated during the first performance under the baton of Tchaikovsky himself, was performed for the second time. In this symphony, which, unfortunately, became our composer’s swan song, he appeared new not only in content, but also in form; instead of the usual Allegro or Presto it begins Adagio lamentoso, leaving the listener in the saddest mood. In this Adagio the composer seems to say goodbye to life; gradual morendo(Italian - fading) of the entire orchestra reminded us of the famous end of Hamlet: “ The rest is silent"(Further - silence)."

We were only able to briefly talk about just a few masterpieces of symphonic music, moreover, leaving aside the musical fabric itself, since such a conversation requires the real sound of the music. But even from this story it becomes clear that the symphony as a genre and symphonies as creations of the human spirit are an invaluable source of the highest pleasure. The world of symphonic music is huge and inexhaustible.

Based on materials from the magazine “Art” No. 08/2009

On the poster: Great Hall of the St. Petersburg Academic Philharmonic named after D. D. Shostakovich. Tory Huang (piano, USA) and the Philharmonic Academic Symphony Orchestra (2013)

Composers' Music Festival begins North Caucasus"The music of neighbors is the music of friends." The festival is supported by Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation on the initiative of the director, artistic director of the State Philharmonic of the Republic of North Ossetia - Alania, chairman of the Union of Composers North Ossetia, Honored Artist Russia, laureate of the State Prizes of Russia and North Ossetia Atsamaz Makoev.

The artistic director of the festival told Sputnik what he sees as the main function of the musical event:

We, the composers of our region, have not met or exchanged mutual creative visits for a long time. Due to economic difficulties, tours of symphony orchestras have become prohibitive, but they are the main guardians and promoters of national composition schools and musicians of the North Caucasus. Until 1991, the annual all-Union festival of professional music “Musical Summer of Ossetia” was held in North Ossetia, at which the entire flower of Soviet performing and composing art was annually presented: Tikhon Khrennikov , Aram Khachaturyan , Dmitry Kabalevsky , Oscar Feltsman , Rodion Shchedrin , Nikita Bogoslovsky, Vladislav Kazenin, Veronica Dudarova , Svyatoslav Richter , David Oistrakh , Oleg Kogan and many, many others. For a whole month, music from the country’s composers and authors from the North Caucasus and Transcaucasia was heard in our republic.

We decided to gradually restore old connections and learn more about how our colleagues live, what they write, what they perform. We want the music of our contemporary composers to be heard more and be boldly included in the repertoires of state professional institutions culture of the region and country, and for our composers to be at the forefront of the spiritual upsurge of interethnic relations in the North Caucasus.

Makoev also spoke about the events planned within the framework of the festival:

The festival opens on October 18 in Nalchik, where the Kabardino-Balkaria Symphony Orchestra under the direction of conductor Peter Temirkanov will perform works by composers from our region.

On October 26 in Makhachkala, the National Symphony Orchestra of Dagestan under the direction of conductor Valeria Khlebnikova will perform the “Beslan Symphony” (composer - Atsamaz Makoev - editor's note). And in the first part of the concert the famous cellist from St. Petersburg Sergei Raldugin will perform.

On October 31, in Maykop, the opera “Rolls of Distant Thunder” by our contemporary Aslan Nekhai will be performed in concert. The Adygea Symphony Orchestra and the State Folk Song Ensemble “Islamey” will perform at the concert.

On November 7, a symphony orchestra concert will take place in Stavropol, where symphonic vocal works by composers from the North Caucasus will also be performed. Conductor - Andrey Abramov.

On November 11, a large concert of symphonic music will take place in Nazran with works by composers from Ossetia, Ingushetia, Chechnya, Dagestan, Kabardino-Balkaria, which will be performed by the joint orchestra of Dagestan and Chechnya. Conductor - Valery Khlebnikov.

On November 13-14, four concerts will be held in Vladikavkaz - the State Chamber Choir "Alania", the orchestra of national instruments of the State Philharmonic of North Ossetia, the National Variety Orchestra named after. K. Suanova, as well as a concert of chamber instrumental music. We invited guests from Moscow to the concert - the leadership of the Union of Composers Russian Federation: Alexey Rybnikov , Rashida Kalimullina, Pavel Levadny, as well as all composer organizations in the region,

Publications in the Music section

Five great symphonies of Russian composers

In the world of music, there are unique, iconic works, the sounds of which write the chronicle of musical life. Some of these works represent a revolutionary breakthrough in art, others are distinguished by a complex and deep concept, others amaze with the extraordinary history of creation, fourths are a unique presentation of the composer's style, and fifths... are so beautiful in music that it is impossible not to mention them. To the credit of musical art, there are a lot of such works, and as an example, let's talk about five selected Russian symphonies, the uniqueness of which is difficult to overestimate.

Second (heroic) symphony by Alexander Borodin (B-flat minor, 1869–1876)

In Russia, by the second half of the 19th century, a fix idea had matured among composers: it was time to create their own, Russian symphony. By that time, in Europe, the symphony celebrated its centenary, having gone through all stages of the evolutionary chain: from the operatic overture, which left the theater stage and was performed separately from the opera, to such colossi as Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 (1824) or Berlioz’s Symphony Fantastique (1830). In Russia, the fashion for this genre did not catch on: they tried it once, twice (Dmitry Bortnyansky - Concert Symphony, 1790; Alexander Alyabyev - symphonies in E minor, E-flat major) - and they abandoned this idea in order to return to it decades later in the works of Anton Rubinstein, Miliya Balakirev, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Alexander Borodin and others.

The mentioned composers judged absolutely correctly, realizing that the only thing that a Russian symphony can boast of against the backdrop of European abundance is its national flavor. And Borodin has no equal in this. His music breathes the expanse of endless plains, the prowess of Russian knights, the sincerity of folk songs with their aching, touching note. The emblem of the symphony was the main theme of the first movement, upon hearing which the composer’s friend and mentor, musicologist Vladimir Stasov, suggested two names: first “Lioness”, and then a more appropriate idea: “Bogatyrskaya”.

Unlike the symphonic works of the same Beethoven or Berlioz, based on human passions and experiences, the Bogatyr Symphony tells about time, history and people. There is no drama in the music, no pronounced conflict: it resembles a series of smoothly changing paintings. And this is fundamentally reflected in the structure of the symphony, where the slow movement, usually in second place, and the lively scherzo (traditionally coming after it) change places, and the finale, in a generalized form, repeats the ideas of the first movement. Borodin in this way managed to achieve maximum contrast in the musical illustration of the national epic, and Bogatyrskaya’s structural model subsequently served as a model for the epic symphonies of Glazunov, Myaskovsky and Prokofiev.

Pyotr Tchaikovsky's Sixth (pathetique) symphony (B minor, 1893)

There is so much evidence, interpretation, and attempts to explain its content that the entire description of this work could consist of quotes. Here is one of them, from Tchaikovsky’s letter to his nephew Vladimir Davydov, to whom the symphony is dedicated: “During the trip, I had the idea of ​​another symphony, this time a program one, but with a program that would remain a mystery to everyone. This program is the most imbued with subjectivity, and often during my travels, mentally composing it, I cried a lot.”. What kind of program is this? Tchaikovsky confesses this to his cousin Anna Merkling, who suggested that he described his life in this symphony. "Yes, you guessed it right", - confirmed the composer.

In the early 1890s, the thought of writing memoirs repeatedly visited Tchaikovsky. Sketches for his unfinished symphony called “Life” date back to this time. Judging by the surviving drafts, the composer planned to depict certain abstract stages of life: youth, thirst for activity, love, disappointment, death. However, the objective plan was not enough for Tchaikovsky, and the work was interrupted, but in the Sixth Symphony he was guided exclusively by personal experiences. How sick the composer’s soul must have been for music to be born with such an incredible, amazing power of influence!

The lyrical-tragic first part and the finale are inextricably linked with the image of death (in the development of the first part the theme of the spiritual chant “Rest with the Saints” is cited), as Tchaikovsky himself testified to, referring to this symphony in response to the proposal of Grand Duke Konstantin Romanov to write “Requiem” " That is why the bright lyrical intermezzo (five-beat waltz in the second part) and the solemn and triumphal scherzo are so keenly perceived. There are many discussions about the role of the latter in the composition. It seems that Tchaikovsky was trying to show the futility of earthly glory and happiness in the face of inevitable loss, thereby confirming the great saying of Solomon: “Everything passes. This too will pass".

Third Symphony (“Divine Poem”) by Alexander Scriabin (C minor, 1904)

If you happen to visit the Alexander Scriabin House-Museum in Moscow on a dark autumn evening, you will certainly feel the eerie and mysterious atmosphere that surrounded the composer during his lifetime. A strange structure of colored light bulbs on the table in the living room, plump volumes on philosophy and occultism behind the cloudy glass of the bookcase door, and finally, an ascetic-looking bedroom where Scriabin, who had been afraid all his life of dying from blood poisoning, died of sepsis. A gloomy and mysterious place that perfectly demonstrates the composer’s worldview.

No less indicative of Scriabin’s thinking is his Third Symphony, which opens the so-called middle period of creativity. At this time, Scriabin gradually formulated his philosophical views, the essence of which is that the whole world is the result of one’s own creativity and one’s own thoughts (solipsism in its extreme stage) and that the creation of the world and the creation of art are essentially similar processes. These processes proceed like this: from the primary chaos of creative languor, two principles arise - active and passive (male and female). The first carries divine energy, the second gives rise to the material world with its natural beauties. The interaction of these principles creates cosmic eros, leading to ecstasy - the free triumph of the spirit.

No matter how strange all of the above may sound, Scriabin sincerely believed in this model of Genesis, according to which the Third Symphony was written. Its first part is called “Struggle” (the struggle of a man-slave, submissive to the supreme Ruler of the world, and a man-god), the second - “Pleasures” (a person surrenders to the joys of the sensory world, dissolves in nature), and, finally, the third - “Divine play" (the liberated spirit, "creating the universe with the sole power of his creative will," comprehends the "sublime joy of free activity"). But philosophy is philosophy, and the music itself is marvelous, revealing all the timbre capabilities of a symphony orchestra.

Sergei Prokofiev's First (Classical) Symphony (D major, 1916–1917)

The year is 1917, difficult war years, revolution. It would seem that art should frown gloomily and tell about painful things. But sad thoughts are not for Prokofiev’s music - sunny, sparkling, youthfully charming. This is his First Symphony.

The composer was interested in the work of the Viennese classics even in his student years. Now a work a la Haydn has come from his pen. “It seemed to me that if Haydn had lived to this day, he would have retained his style of writing and at the same time adopted something new.”, - Prokofiev commented on his brainchild.

The composer chose a modest composition of the orchestra, again in the spirit of Viennese classicism - without heavy brass. The texture and orchestration are light and transparent, the scale of the work is not large, the composition is harmonious and logical. In a word, it is very reminiscent of the work of classicism, mistakenly born in the twentieth century. However, there are also purely Prokofiev emblems, for example, his favorite genre of gavotte in the third movement instead of a scherzo (the composer later used this musical material in the ballet “Romeo and Juliet”), as well as a sharp “pepper” harmony and an abyss of musical humor.

Seventh (Leningrad) Symphony by Dmitri Shostakovich (C major, 1941)

On July 2, 1942, twenty-year-old pilot Lieutenant Litvinov, miraculously breaking through the enemy encirclement, managed to bring him to besieged Leningrad medicines and four plump music notebooks with the score of the Seventh Symphony by D.D. Shostakovich, and the next day a short note appeared in Leningradskaya Pravda: “The score of Dmitry Shostakovich’s Seventh Symphony was delivered to Leningrad by plane. Its public performance will take place in the Great Hall of the Philharmonic".

An event for which the history of music has never known analogues: in a besieged city, terribly exhausted musicians (everyone who survived took part) under the baton of conductor Carl Eliasberg performed Shostakovich’s new symphony. The same one that the composer composed in the first weeks of the siege, until he and his family were evacuated to Kuibyshev (Samara). On the day of the Leningrad premiere, August 9, 1942, the Great Hall of the Leningrad Philharmonic was filled to capacity with exhausted city residents with translucent faces, but at the same time in elegant clothes, and military personnel who had come straight from the front line. The symphony was broadcast to the streets through radio speakers. That evening, the whole world stood still and listened to the unprecedented feat of the musicians.

...It is noteworthy, but the famous theme in the spirit of Ravel’s “Bolero”, which is now usually personified with a fascist army mindlessly moving and destroying everything in its path, was written by Shostakovich even before the start of the war. However, it was quite naturally included in the first part of the Leningrad Symphony, taking the place of the so-called “invasion episode”. The life-affirming ending also turned out to be prophetic, anticipating the coveted Victory, from which it was still separated by such a long three and a half years...