Polish composer Karol Szymanowski worked on his Symphony No. 1 in F minor Op. 15 between 1906 and 1907.

Szymanowski struggled with the composition. He wrote in a letter from 1906 that it was going to "turn out to be some sort of contrapuntal-harmonic-orchestral monster"[1] and going so far as to say "I don't like it".[2] He only completed the first movement and the finale and these two movements had a single performance at the Warsaw Philharmonia, conducted by Grzegorz Fitelberg on 26 March 1909, before Szymanowski withdrew the score.

The symphony is scored for 3 flutes, 3 oboes, 4 clarinets, 3 bassoons, 6 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, percussion (4 players), 2 harps and strings.

The two movements are:

  1. Allegro moderato
  2. Allegretto con moto grazioso

The playing time is approximately 20 minutes.

Recordings

References

  1. ^ "Symphony No. 1 in F minor op. 15". karolszymanowski.pl. Retrieved 14 April 2019.
  2. ^ Thomas, Adrian. "LSO Szymanowski: Symphony no.1". onpolishmusic.com. Retrieved 14 April 2019.
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