Yikes! It's Saturday already, and the week is quickly disappearing. I've had a busy week, so I'm late in getting to Grechaninov's symphony, but I'll see if I can finish up my comments and rating today. I only had the chance to listen to the work once, earlier in the week, so I'll listen to it again and then complete this post later in the day. I'll confess right up front, though: Not only have I not heard this symphony before, I've never even heard of this composer, Alexander Grechaninov, a Russian Romantic composer. You can read a little bit about him HERE.
Composed in 1908, the symphony consists of four movements: I. Pastorale. Moderato assai e poco rubato II. Andante III. Scherzo. Vivo assai IV. Finale. Allegro vivace I got a chance to listen to the symphony earlier in the week, and then I listened once again today. On both of those occasions I listened on Spotify. Finally I started a YouTube version of the symphony on my laptop so that I could hear it again as I began to type my thoughts, but now I am confused as hell. Oops. Pardon my French.
The symphony linked above -- HERE -- opens by a short fanfare of brass answered by quiet, sustained notes in the strings. A second, short fanfare is met again by short, sustained chords in the strings before an oboe begins a sprightly tune to move the piece forward.
The symphony I listened to on Spotify -- like the YouTube video HERE -- opens with a quiet pulse of strings as a clarinet then soars above them with a beautiful but mournful lament. Both works claim to be Symphony No. 2, Opus 27, by Alexander Grechaninov -- but they are definitely two completely different compositions. I listened to the Spotify version, and then I was utterly surprised when the YouTube version began playing. Does anyone know anything about this mystery? I was all set to put down my thoughts on the Spotify version of Grechaninov's Symphony No. 2, but now I'm not ever sure if I listened to the correct work, so here is what I'm going to do: Since tomorrow begins a new week, I'm going to postpone the work I had originally selected for next week, and I am going to listen to the YouTube version of Grechaninov's Symphony No. 2 to see how different it is from the Spotify version -- and then I'll post my comments and ratings on both next week. So far I've only compared the first four or five minutes of the first movements of the two versions, but they are definitely different works of art. I do not know, at this point, if that holds true for the second, third and fourth movements -- are they the same or are they different? I'm so confused. Again, if anyone knows anything about this mystery please let me know. In the meantime, I'll listen to the YouTube version, and then I'll discuss both symphonies next week. Stay tuned!
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A New Hope:As the header above says, each week I will listen to a piece of classical music that I've never heard before, and then I will report out what I thought about it. Archives
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