Symphony No.1 - Galina Ustvolskaya

Ural Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Dmitry Liss. I - Part I: 0:00 II - Part II (Ciccio - Merry-go-round - Saturday night - The youths of Modena - “Buy jumble“ - Waiting room - When the chimneys die - Sun!): 2:34 III - Part III: 15:08 Ustvolskaya’s Symphony No.1 was completed in 1955, being scored for orchestra and two children’s voices. Due to its modernistic character, it wasn’t premiered until April 25 of 1966, performed by the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Arvids Jansons. Divided in three movements, the external ones are purely symphonic, the central one encompasses a series of eight poems by Italian poet Gianni Rodari. With the piece, the composer broke with both the past and the influence of Shostakovich, using a very expressionistic and ascetic style. The themes of the poems are racial, economic and other injustices in the United States of America, although Ustvolskaya denied these references and insisted that she did not choose the poems herself. The work, as well as Ustvolskaya’s new style, was not well regarded by the Soviet authorities, who found the work too depressing. The first movement begins with very dry phrases from the wood, which become more and more dissonant. The piano soon enters along the simple motives of the woods. The movement ends with a simple repetition of the opening phrase. It is a brief movement used as an introduction, creating a very depressing environment. The second movement is divided into eight poems. The Russian translations of Rodari’s poems all recount the fate of the poor: the children living in a cave in close vicinity to a dumping ground (Ciccio), the black child that can never know the happiness of white folks (Merry-go-round), the insufficient wages of the father (Saturday Night), the children orphaned by the violent repression of a strike (The youths of Modena), the rag-and-bone man (“Buy jumble“), the vagrant in the railway station (The waiting room), unemployment (When the chimneys die) and finally, darkness without hope (Sun!). The music that supports these poems is as dark and arid as the topics themselves are. The third movement, as the first, is purely orchestral. It opens with meditative motives presented by the woods, soon combined in counterpoint. A slow crescendo leads us to a bitter and dissonant climax, like a desperate cry of protest. A brief recapitulation of the opening motives end the movement in the same depressing environment with which it had begun. [Activate the subtitles to read the lyrics]. Picture: “Gipsy Children“ (1855) by the Austrian painter August von Pettenkofen. Sources: and Unfortunately the score is not available.