Symphony No. 1 (Rachmaninoff) - Second Life

Second Life

While Rachmaninoff had kept the score of the First Symphony safely in his Moscow flat until the October Revolution, he had made no attempt to collect the orchestral parts in his haste to leave St. Petersburg in 1897. This fact would prove fortuitous in the symphony's ultimate fate. Shortly after the composer's death, in 1944, the instrumental parts of the symphony were discovered by chance in the Belyayev Archive of the Leningrad Conservatory Library. Using these parts and the two-piano arrangement, a group of scholars headed by prominent Russian conductor Aleksandr Gauk reconstructed the full score. The second performance of the piece, considered a success, took place at the Moscow Conservatory on October 17, 1945, conducted by Aleksandr Gauk.

The American premiere took place on March 19, 1948 at the Philadelphia Academy of Music, the Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Eugene Ormandy. It was part of the first concert to be televised in the United States. A second performance was broadcast on radio the following day. Worth noting in light of the 1897 premiere is that seven rehearsals were needed to prepare the work for its initial American hearing, even though both Ormandy and the Philadelphia had long been familiar with the composer's style. With the posthumous rise in Rachmaninoff's reputation as a composer, the symphony became part of the standard orchestral repertoire.

Conversely, the first British performance of the symphony did not take place until January 2, 1964, with the semi-professional Polyphonia Symphony Orchestra conducted by Bryan Fairfax. This was during a time when Rachmaninoff's music was held in low regard in the United Kingdom.

The first Australian performance was in 1985 in the Perth Concert Hall by the West Australian Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Vladimir Verbitsky. It was repeated with the same performers and in the same venue on June 1/2 2012.