N.Myaskovsky - Symphony No.1 (Rozhdestvensky) • Symphony No.19 (Sergeyev) - 1993

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N.Myaskovsky - Symphony No.1 (Rozhdestvensky) • Symphony No.19 (Sergeyev) - 1993

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Nikolai Myaskovsky was born on April 20, 1881 in Novogeorgiyevsk. His father was a military engineer whose assignments took him to various cities in Russia. The family finally settled in St. Petersburg, where Nikolai enrolled in the Military Academy. He studied at the Academy of Military Engineering from 1888-1802. After graduating from the Academy, Myaskovsy served as a military engineer in Moscow where he met and began music studies with Reinhold Gliere. In 1804 his army reassignment sent him St. Petersburg. There he continued his music studies with Krizhanovsky. In 1806 he resigned from the army and entered the St. Petersburg Conservatory where he studied with Liadov and Rimsky-Korsakov. He graduated from the Conservatory in 1811. During his years at the Conservatory, Myaskovsky composed several song cycles, his first piano sonata, the Symphony No.1 in C Minor, and an allegorical tone poem on words by Edgar Allan Poe called Silence. Shortly after graduation he completed his Symphony No.2 in Gsharp Minor, a Sinfonietta, and his first cello sonata. This was quickly followed by his third symphony, a second piano sonata and another set of songs. The outbreak of the First World War marked a radical change in the composer's life, and he found himself in the front-line positions in Galicia, near Lvov and
Przemysl. He suffered from shell shock and at the end of 1817 was transferred to the Naval Staff at St. Petersburg. Over the next several months he recuperated and composed his fourth symphony. His music took a different turn becoming quieter and simpler, akin to folk music. In 1821 Myaskovsky was appointed professor of composition at the Moscow Conservatory, a post he retained until his death. He was a thorough and perceptive teacher, numbering Kabalevsky, Khachaturian, and Shebalin among his pupils, and his unselfish critical attitude and ready helpfulness earned him the affectionate nickname “the musical conscience of Moscow."
Myaskovsky died in Moscow, on August 8, 1850. A prolific composer, he was a stabilizer in musical circles rather than an innovator. In his own words, “the tireless quest for the "last word" in musical technique and invention did not constitute an end in itself for me." High-principled and classically disciplined, he was rooted in the Russian tradition. He composed tvventy-seven symphonies, a violin concerto and a cello concerto, thirteen string quartets, nine piano sonatas, many songs, piano pieces and short
orchestral works. Myaskovsky's Symphony No.1 in C Minor, Opus 3 was composed in 1808 while he was a student at the St. Petersburg Conservatory. He stated of his first of tvventy-seven essays in this form: “I felt that in this particular field I would be able to express myself with greatest freedom." Although not entirely original in style, this first symphony shows beyond a doubt that Myaskovsky already had a grasp of the symphonic form. The musical ideas in each movement are vividly
expressed and so developed that the work as a whole has finish and unity. According to musicologist Alexei lkonnikov, “The continuity of the three movements of Myaskovsky's First Symphony is ensured by the lucid tonal plan of C minor — A flat major — C minor… The first movement, with its spontaneous outbursts of feeling and romantic unrest, is followed by a tranquil, flowing /arghetto, full of nobility and beauty. The finale is reminiscent of the first movement, but with more powerful rhythms and greater nobility… It is the youthful freshness of this symphony that appeals to us, although the composer was nearly thirty when he wrote it."
In 1939 Myaskovsky wrote his Symphony No. 79 in E-flat Major, Opus 46 for military band and dedicated it to the Twenty-first Anniversary of the Fled Army. “At first the difficulties of this unusual task oppressed and discouraged me but I was anxious to keep my promise to army bandmaster l. V. Petrov and soon mustered a fair spurt of energy, with the result that instead of a simple piece in one movement l was able to send him a complete symphony in four movements. It turned out to be one of my more optimistic pieces. Its first and last movements are urgent and positive, while the middle movements take the form of a symphonized waltz [second movement] and a meditative andante [third movement]." This task of writing music “equally appreciable to musicologists and to the general public" for the limited ensemble of a military band proved to one of extraordinary difficulty. Nevertheless, the ’l9th Symphony, which was begun on January 5, ‘I939, was finished in piano score by January ’l3, and in the short space of time between the ’l5th and the 26th Myaskovsky finished the orchestration. After its first performance, one critic stated: ”Myaskovsky’s 'l9th Symphony is very Russian, dynamic, positive and rich in formal construction… it is a great addition to the limited repertoire of the military band."