Symphony No. 1 in F Minor, Op. 10 (1924)

Dedicated to Mikhail Vladimirovich Kvadri

The teenage Shostakovich made his international reputation with his First Symphony, written while he was still a student between 1923 and 1925; few composers in history can have pulled off such an auspicious opening to their career. Astonishing brilliance and quicksilver fluency of orchestral writing are matched by dark undertones of mockery and tragic foreboding. This work is at once unique in the composer’s output and yet filled with premonitions of all to come.

At first hearing, this symphony’s four movements have an almost playfully neo-classical surface, but the music is constantly unpredictable, full of strange twists and turns, sometimes hilariously funny, sometimes startlingly moving and personal. From its sinewy sinister opening for solo trumpet and bassoon, through its helter-skelter piano-dominated scherzo and sombrely thoughtful slow movement right to its strident blast of trumpets and trombones at the very end, this piece – composed eighty years ago - still keeps audiences amazed and on the edge of their seats.

Note by Gerard McBurney

According to Manashir Yakubov, the composer began composing his first Symphony in 1924, for details. Originally Op. 11. The official première was preceded by a performance on 7 February 1926 at a meeting of the State Scientific Council of the People’s Commissariat for Education with Dmitri Shostakovich playing the piano score, and by a second performance in early spring 1926 at the Leningrad Conservatoire. On this latter occasion Evgeni Slavinsky’s version of the work for piano four hands was played by Pavel Feldt and the composer.

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1. Allegretto – Allegro non troppo
2. Allegro
3. Lento – Largo
4. Allegro molto – Lento – Meno mosso – Allegro molto – Molto meno mosso – Più mosso – Presto