JSV 38
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Svendsen, Johan

Symfoni nr. 1 i D-dur, op. 4

Symphony No. 1 in D major, Op. 4

([de]: Symphonie (D-dur) für Orchester)

JSV 38

 

Dedicatee: Carl F. Leche

In the summer of 1865, immediately after his Quartet had its first performance, Svendsen began work on his Symphony No. 1 in D major, Op. 4 and his String Octet in A major, Op. 3. The first page of the earliest known full score of the Symphony is dated Leipzig, July 1865. Writing to his father from Leipzig on 20 September 1865, Svendsen said: ‘Composition is going well; I’m writing Fugues for Dr Hauptmann, and for Kapellmeister Reinecke I’ve started a Symphony that I think is going to be good.’

The first movement of the Symphony was premièred on 9 May 1866, at a public graduation concert in the Leipzig Gewandhaus, conducted by Svendsen himself. He was very pleased with this concert.

Svendsen had also just won the Conservatory’s First Prize, and a letter he wrote to his father from Leipzig on 24 May 1866 shows obvious elation at his success. During the summer and autumn of 1866 Svendsen continued to work on the last three movements of the Symphony, and the first complete score is dated December 1866.  

Strangely enough, only the last three movements of the Symphony were performed at Svendsen’s final graduation concert in the Leipzig Gewandhaus on 29 May 1867, once again conducted by the composer himself.

So we can conclude that the Symphony’s true première took place in Christiania (Oslo), Norway, on 12 October 1867, when the composer conducted the complete work with a pickup orchestra in ‘Logens store Sal’, the ‘large hall of the Old Masonic Lodge’.

Edvard Grieg wrote an extensive and extremely positive review in Aftenbladet (14 October). Possibly it was after this that Grieg wrote ‘Må aldrig opføres’ (‘Must never be performed’) on the score of his own Symphony in C minor (1863–64).

It is likely that Grieg saw in Svendsen a greater Symphonist than himself, and that at this time he felt Svendsen had created a style with a more national, Norwegian character than his own.

Composition: 1865-1866.

Leipzig.
The first movement was completed for a concert in May 1866. The other three movements were finished in December 1866.

Version for Orchestra

JSV 38a

Instrumentation:
2 fl., 2 ob., 2 cl., 2 fg., 4 cor., 2 tr., 3 trb., timp., str.
Metre: 2/2

Key: D major

Extent: ca. 30 min.

Reproduction (edition or facsimile):
Edited score (JSV)  

+ Music

+ Sources

+ Performances

Version for Piano four hands

JSV 38b

Instrumentation: piano 4h

Key: D major

+ Sources

+ Primary texts

+ Bibliography

 
 

File title:

Symfoni nr. 1 i D-dur, op. 4

File publication:

Norsk Musikkarv (NM)
Institutt for musikkvitenskap
Postboks 1017
Blindern 0315
Oslo
WWW: http://www.musikkarven.no/
E-mail: mailto://bjar-eng@online.no

Bjarte Engeset (Editor in Chief), Editorial Committee: Morten Christophersen, Bjarte Engeset, Jørn Fossheim, Audun Sannes Jonassen, Jørgen Langdalen, Øyvind Norheim


Last changed 2022-02-19 by bjarte