Russian Chamber Symphony

[snl0609]

Hello All,
I am the conductor of the Midwest Chamber Ensemble in Kansas City.  I am looking for a Russian Chamber Symphony: 30 ish minutes, 2 across in the winds no more than 10 brass. The entire string section is 19 players.  Not terribly difficult. (The players are mostly graduate students; very good ones.) However I always want to deliver a quality product!

[mbhaub]

Since you seem to have a full wind section, why limit this to a "chamber symphony"? If I understand you though, you want something not quite on the scale of the Tchaikovsky or Glazunov symphonies. Try Anton Rubinstein symphonies 3 or 5. Relatively short, not terribly difficult and certainly not mainstream. Don't know about availability of parts.

[eschiss1]

There's always Barshai's arrangement of Shostakovich's 3rd string quartet, but that's out of the way of this Romantic-era forum.  Still, Rimsky's sinfonietta might qualify, will have to check- maybe some works by Nikolai A. Sokolov too (I think he wrote some works for small chamber orchestra and for string orchestra; consider for instance his serenade no.2 for string orchestra (score and parts). Also Arensky's intermezzo Op.13 for strings, Kalinnikov's, etc. Don't know of (and haven't found in a brief search) and works by Romantic-era Russian (or Ukrainian, or...!!) composers for small orchestra consisting of woodwind and strings but... hrm. (Myaskovsky's 1938-39 symphony no.19 for large wind band also fits in here a bit, being Romantic in general ethos, and since its slow movement and scherzo-ish movement were arranged by the composer for strings; he also wrote two fairly well-known (ish...) sinfoniettas for strings, one of them part of a op.32 trilogy of works the other two of which might be for small orchestra- will have to check. Copyright conditions on such a relatively recent composer and such recent works, of course...)

Will conjecture, with tongue in cheek (and as one of the few fans of Arnold Schoenberg's music you will find here) that the existence of the modern chamber orchestra owes its existence, to the HIP movement recently on the one hand but earlier than that, much earlier, mainly to Schoenberg's music (and one work in particular...)

(his (only, at the time) chamber symphony did more than maybe expected- even in the USSR, where it may have had indirect side effects in the form of works like Gavriil Popov's septet/chamber symphony Op.2, and others. Don't know. Maybe not...)

Finding works explicitly for wind/strings orchestra, for dozen-odd instrument ensembles, suchlike, before 1st decade 20c (Roussel's divertissement is also from about the same time...) - guessing they're not thick on the ground, but much more so after.

Ah, for some reason missed that you had brass...

[eschiss1]

Quick re Rubinstein 3, 5- mbhaub, are you sure they don't require 3 or more winds or brass in the sections you mention? The parts may be available in the Fleisher Collection (search http://freelibrary.org/ and contact the email specified- institutions, orchestras only) But you're right- a small-demands symphony is more reasonable than what I was thinking of, and those do exist, lots of interesting Russian ones, from the 19th century...

[eschiss1]

You don't mention if you have timpani. If so you can handle Rubinstein's 6th symphony--

instrumentation:

2-fl, 2-ob, 2-cl, 2-bn, 4-hn, 2-tpt, 3-trb, tmp, str. 

See http://know.freelibrary.org/vufind/Record/925532 - 250 pp score and parts from Fleisher collection. Has been recorded once that I know of (on Marco Polo, reissued on Naxos)- maybe another time too.

The availability of the parts of the 3rd symphony is a problem, I gather- so much so that the premiere recording (on Centaur) had to be put off until new parts could be made from the score by a grad student, or somesuch. A 2nd recording followed, but I'm guessing that anyone who wanted to perform the work might have to get permission to use the parts from the orchestra that commissioned them, or something (performing rights bring in more money than publishing royalties, and have for awhile, I gather...)

A symphony requiring somewhat larger forces (percussion, timpani, harp and maybe some cleverness with the wind section--

2-fl, 1-pc, 2-ob, 2-cl, 2-bn, 4-hn, 2-tpt, 3-trb, 1-tb, tmp, prc, hp, str. 

is Eduard Napravnik's symphony no.3 "Demon", Op.18- (see also IMSLP link for this work - downloadable score and parts for it)
but at least you'd almost definitely be able to say you'd be giving it its first performance in ages, I do think. (His Op.16 and Op.17, just preceding, are neat-looking piano quintets (imslp.org has score and parts to them), brought out by the same German publisher, D. Rahter, as brought out the symphony. (Not a typo- Rahter, not Rather.))

[mbhaub]

The Rubinstein 3rd calls for winds in pairs, two trumpets and 4 horns, timpani and strings. No trombones or tuba, harp, cor Anglais, etc. So well within chamber orchestra size. The performing parts I know of were made by Barry Kolman who made the first recording. I know this because many years ago he was working with a local group I play with and while he was here he had his laptop with him editing the Rubinstein parts. One problem with Rubinstein though, it there's nothing about it that sounds particularly Russian, unlike the members of the Mighty Five.

[eschiss1]

ah! ok. he's the person one would have to ask for better or worse, then... seems not a difficult person to find, judging from Google, either