Alexander Goedicke's Third Symphony in C minor

[Alan Howe]

On the orchestra in the recording of Goedicke's 3rd:

Founded: 1930 - Moscow, Russia, as Moscow Radio Symphony Orchestra
Re-named: 1993, as Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra

The Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra of Moscow (= TSOM is a Russian classical music orchestra established in 1930. The Orchestra is internationally recognised as one of Russia's most prestigious and versatile orchestras. Originally founded as the Moscow Radio Symphony Orchestra (= MRSO), it served as the official symphony for the Soviet All-Union Radio network. During Soviet times, the orchestra was sometimes known as the USSR State Radio and Television Symphony Orchestra, the USSR State Radio Symphony Orchestra, or the Symphony Orchestra of All-Union Radio and Television. Following the dissolution of the USSR in 1993, the Orchestra was renamed by the decree of the Russian Ministry of Culture and became Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra of Moscow Radio. Awarding the Orchestra the name of this great Russian composer was recognition of its role in promoting much of the music written by Tchaikovsky.
https://www.bach-cantatas.com/Bio/MRSO.htm

[adriano]

Will come back later on, on Goedicke's Symphony, I need another listening. Such a pity I cannot find yet a score...
The Moscow Radio Symphony was Golovanov's Orchestra from 1937 till 1953.
The sound of this Goedicke LP transfer is overdriven, I could not improve this. Already examining its wave image (with WaveLab software) I counted with a bad surprise of this sort. So let's hope one day I get an LP myself...
Once more we have that typical rather clumsy (butt still clear) USSR balance trademark of that time, which I actually like; it reflects a whole epoch's technical and stylistic features. I still find the Melodiya sound so characteristic and atmospheric. One already feel familiar with it from the first oboe entrance (Prelude to the famous complete "Swan Lake" recording by Yuri Fayer). Before even travelling to Russia (in the 1960s), I had the impression of getting a glimpse of a fascinatingly "exotic" culture waiting for a real exploration. And this all later happened in a way I would have never dreamt of!
Two of the "old guard" of Melodiya's producers and balance engineers (they did quite a few of my earlier Moscow CDs) showed me the various recording venues - including Mosfilm, where we were going to record with the Moscow Symphony Orchestra. What in LP times was not always mentioned officially is that a lot of Melodiya recordings were done in the English Church near the Conservatory, it had much better acoustics for operas than the Great Hall of the Tchaikovsky Conservatory. I've also been invited to Melodiya's Moscow offices and to see its archives. And I was a regular customer at the famous Melodiya shop at Novy Arbat, which, unfortunately, closed down in the early 1990s. It's incredible all the LPs you still could find there!
Old Melodiya box sets often smelled fishy (or even like uring) from the glue which was used to bind them. But those LPs were often less noisier and were pressings with less static cracklings than many European and most US labels, except that they had occasional bubbles...

[Gareth Vaughan]

The printed scores and parts of all Goedicke's symphonies are in Fleisher. I know they do lend scores to musicians (especially conductors) for assessment in case they are contemplating mounting a performance. Worth enquiring, I would think. Incidentally, they spell his name "Gedike" in their catalogue - took me a few attempts to locate the scores!

[adriano]

Yes, I know that, Gareth Vaughan, but I have litttle hope. I have no chance to record it (even though I would love to)...

In the meantime I consulted my books on Myaskovsky and could find out that in the summer of 1922 he was a guest of musicologist Pavel Lamm at the Tchaikovsky House in Klin, to work on his 6th and 7th Symphonies. Alexander Goedicke (or Gëdike) was there too, working on his 3rd Symphony. The two composers were friends already. Myaskovsky was 4 years older than Gëdike.

It also appears that a Gëdike Symphony (his Third?) and Myaskovsky's Sixth were performed in a hugely successful 1926 concert at the Vienna Musikverein. Interestingly, Myaskovsky's earlier Symphonies were published by Universal Edition, but not Gëdike's, who, in as early as in 1900, had won the Vienna Anton Rubinstein Composition Prize.

(I am not a musicologist, what follows now is not authoritative, since I have not enough time to cross-check everything):

In 1932, the Union of Soviet Composers was formed; its Moscow administrators were Glière (its chairman), Ippolitov-Ivanov, Gëdike, Goldenweiser (composer and pianist, the great Scriabin interpreter) and Myaskovsky (including his former students Shebalin and Shekhter) – and others. They were in charge of reviewing new compositions and responsible for education, planning and creative work, they commissioned operas, ballets, symphonic and chamber music. At this occasion, the National journal Sovetskaya Muzika was also created, and, later in 1939, the All-USSR Composers Union.
In this apparently quite "mighty handful", Gëdike and Ippolitov-Ivanov were considered "old-fashioned" members, since their ideologies opposed modern tendencies. Myaskovsky officially welcomed new ideas and also ahgreed to write music inspired by patriotic/political events, but his style was not modernistic – and, incidentally, rather similar to Gëdike's.
This Union would become questionable during Stalin's 1947-8 "musical purges", involving prominent composers like Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Khachaturian and even Mayskovsky (who was only rehabilitated after this death). Gëdike and Glière, for example, had nothing to fear: their music was neither modernistic, nor anti-proletarian; it was considered "traditional". Gëdike had been an overt opponent of (Russian) Futurism during its short existence after the Revolution. The music of Rachmaninov, Glazunov, Scriabin and Medtner was considered "old-fashioned" also by most members of the All-USSR Union. Like Myaskovsky, Gëdike did not like polemics. He avoided discussions and preferred concentrating on teaching and researching the music of Bach and other classics (he became Russia's most prominent Bach organ interpreter): Although he had an auto-didactic formation as a composer (that's also why I like him so!)  - therefore getting just the right opportunities to try out the experimental or a stronger individualistic style, he had voted for classic counterpoint and classic forms – things which (for example, and fortunately) I can say he did not apply systematically in his Third Symphony; which the only work I know at present.

[Alan Howe]

Fascinating. We'll now look forward to your thoughts on the 3rd Symphony itself.

[eschiss1]

I assume Myaskovsky and Gedike were on reasonable terms since the latter was the dedicatee of one of the former's better-known works (the B minor string sinfonietta.) Hrm... (and as to Medtner, Gedike helped edit his cousin's complete piano works. Interesting.)

[eschiss1]

I'm a little surprised Scriabin's music was considered old-fashioned, actually. Many people now still find the late sonatas hard to crack, and though all were written before 1915 I wouldn't dream of bringing them up in this forum! (One last thing- there's a letter from Rachmaninoff to Gedike commiserating over the reception of the latter's 2nd symphony around 1908... (letter around 1908, premiere 1907, my bad)).

[adriano]

yes eschiss1, but consider also the fact that the Russians always had often a very strange and partial way of judging things. This (unofficial) list of "old fashioned composers" caused quite a stir, but nobody dared to react officially. Suppose the "system" did not like Rachmaninov, Scriabin and Medtner because they were so successful and could go abroad on extended tours. Medtner had left Russia in 1921 and Rachmaninov already in 1917 (in 1931, on top of everything, he had condemned the Soviet system in an article of the New York Times) and Scriabin was considered demented, drug-addicted or sexually deviant - and his mysticism was considered a heresy. He had died already before the Revolution, so post-mortem it was even more easier to condemn him. In other words, (also) those who were already unliked for other than stylistical reasons, were not judged unpartially. Some Russians considered only Scriabins Chopinesque youth sonats as valuable (!); I have met a couple of Moscow musicians who despise him still today! In any case, Myaskovsky and Gëdike adored the "Poem of Ecstasy" and played it often four-hands (as his Symphonies) - and Goldenweiser promoted Scriabin as much as he could. Gëdike, after Goldenweiser had attacked his fellow composers of being too "modern" (he juged Rachmaninov, Scriabin and Medtner as the only valuable great Russian composers after Tchaikovsky & Co.) reacted by saying that he must have lost his mind.
A propos Myaskovsky; there is an interesting episode in connection with one of Otto Klemeperer's Russian tours in the 1930s: He was invited by Pavel Lamm (who reports this incident) to listen to a piano version of Myaskovsky's 7th Symphony, and could follow it with a score. At the end he expressed his intention to perform it in the West. Then he added that he would like to conduct Mahler in Russia, but Myaskovsky answered that his music was "banal" and had not gained real success, Klemperer answered "yes, but it just has to be banal!"

[Christopher]

You've mentioned Goldenweiser a few times.  Tell us about him.  1875-1961.  Would his music be of interest to this forum?  Is any of it recorded, especially orchestral?

[Alan Howe]

I think we'll start a separate thread on Goldenweiser...
http://www.unsungcomposers.com/forum/index.php/topic,7103.0.html

[eschiss1]

btw re the symphony no 3 score, not only RSL but also St Pancras (see here) have a copy. Newberry Library in Chicago has the duet reduction pub.1927 and I think also the full score. U Chicago has the fs too I believe.

[adriano]

Thanks, eschiss1. I am already in contact with the Fleischer Collection for a scan - and hope it will work. I am offering them a good deal in exchange :-)

[eschiss1]

didn't know they had the work too. good!

[Justin]

I happened to find another copy of the symphony (under catalog number 04786), although it is a bit faster than the one already uploaded on this site. The label says CCCP, which I assume is Melodya?

Perhaps someone could help determine which version is the correct speed? I would just like to verify that I can upload it legally, so if I could get a thumbs up from the moderators, pretty please? 

Thanks,

Justin

[adriano]

@ Zusac

The download I have edited seems to be a half-tone lower.
I have now streched the file electronically. The Symphony's final chord (which I suppose to be in the work's principal key) now sounds in C Minor.

You can download from here, in order to compare it with your recording.
http://www.mediafire.com/file/jkc5n8dfq01mawq/GOEDICKE+-+Symph.+No.+3.zip

Unfortunately the Fleisher Collection refused to let me have a scan of the score - for copyright reasons, of course... And I am still struggling to get it from Russia...