Myaskovsky: Symphonies Nos. 5 and 9

Featuring

Sir Edward Downes
BBC Philharmonic
Nikolai Myaskovsky

Did you know?

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Composer Biography

A concert conducted by Nikisch in 1896 decisively influenced Miaskovsky to pursue a career in music.

Composer Biography

Nikolai Miaskovsky, born in 1881, belonged to a generation of Russian musicians whose careers were shaped by the new regime established after 1917.

Composer's Artistic Vision

Miaskovsky's first symphonies, written between 1908 and 1918, were pessimistic in tendency, but his Fifth Symphony marked a more positive attitude.

Composer Biography

Miaskovsky's fellow students at the St. Petersburg Conservatory included a young Prokofiev, ten years his junior, with whom he formed a lasting friendship.

Composer Biography

Miaskovsky initially followed family tradition by studying in military schools and at the Academy of Military Engineering, completing his studies in 1902.

Performer Biography

Sir Edward Downes, the conductor on this album, was appointed principal conductor of the BBC Northern Symphony Orchestra (now the BBC Philharmonic) in 1980 and held the position until 1991, the year he was knighted.

Critical Reception

The Fifth Symphony was well received both in Russia and abroad, praised for its essentially Russian inspiration and melodic material, and its immediate comprehensibility.