The Symphony
The B minor Symphony is arguably the most important large-scale work completed by the composer himself, and is considered to be one of his greatest. It has many melodic resemblances to both Prince Igor and Mlada, which were two theatrical works that diverted Borodin's attention away from the B minor symphony between 1869-75. According to the account of Borodin's friend Nikolay Kashkin, the symphony's striking and abrupt opening theme originated from the abandoned chorus of Polovtsians, and the Soviet biographer Serge Dianin notes that there is a common thread present in all three pieces. According to Dianin, "it is for this reason that we find certain similarities in the themes Borodin uses in these works." The relation to the heroic world of Prince Igor led Stasov to nickname the work Bogatirskaya simfoniya (Heroic symphony).
Read more about this topic: Symphony No. 2 (Borodin)
Famous quotes containing the word symphony:
“The truth is, as every one knows, that the great artists of the world are never Puritans, and seldom even ordinarily respectable. No virtuous man—that is, virtuous in the Y.M.C.A. sense—has ever painted a picture worth looking at, or written a symphony worth hearing, or a book worth reading, and it is highly improbable that the thing has ever been done by a virtuous woman.”
—H.L. (Henry Lewis)