Composed 1876; Duration: 26 minutes
First BPO Performance: February 19, 1946 (William Steinberg, conductor)
Last BPO Performance: April 14-15, 2012 (Tan Lihua, conductor)
In the 1850s, classical music in Russia was the wild west, with few composers yet to contribute to a national repertoire. Composer Mily Balakirev sought to change that with a group of nationalists whose music was to be uniquely Russian. Later dubbed “The Five,” their music incorporated folk idioms with unconventional scales and harmonies, and they prioritized amateurism in contrast to the professionals at Russia’s new conservatories who aimed to align themselves with the European musical establishment.
Included in this group was Alexander Borodin, who began taking composition lessons with Balakirev in 1862, the same year he published a novel paper describing the nucleophilic displacement of chlorine by fluorine in benzoyl chloride. Borodin’s fame as a composer is remarkable in part because it was a hobby, being highly revered in his lifetime as a chemist. While a chemistry professor in Saint Petersburg, he composed his first symphony, which had a successful premiere in 1869.
He immediately began work on a second symphony, but various distractions would cause a delay for years. The allure of opera took precedence as he labored on Prince Igor, and following new legislation that allowed women to study medicine, he founded a school for that purpose. He finished the piano score in 1873, toiled through orchestration until ‘75, and finally heard the work performed by the Russian Musical Society in ‘77. The work enjoyed moderate success and stood out for its embrace of folk idioms, which was controversial amidst the rise of nationalism in music.
Following the symphony’s premiere, Borodin was in Germany for professional reasons (i.e. chemistry) when he visited Franz Liszt, who was familiar with Borodin’s first symphony. He was delighted by the second following a playthrough of the piano transcription, and later championed the work, making it the first symphony composed by a Russian to be performed outside of Russia.
Sometimes called “The Heroic,” there is evident overlap of materials from Prince Igor, and it has often been associated programmatically with ancient heroic figures, occasionally earning it the nickname “The Bogatyrs” after mythologized Russian warriors. The striking opening features distinctly Russian melodic figures that contrast with a flowing major key theme. The opening movement is propelled by rhythmic energy and creative manipulations of thematic materials, concluding with a brassy exclamation.
The Scherzo departs from convention in both key and meter, zipping along with antsy, pointillist orchestration. The trio melodies float with an Eastern tint, a hallmark of the Russian nationalists. The Andante depicts a Slavic bard in song, accompanied by the traditional zither-like gusli—portrayed here variously by clarinet, horn, and English horn with harp—and is a movement generous with lush melodies. The finale features pentatonic melodies that dance in alternating triple and duple meters, piling on exuberance in Borodin’s distinctively folksy symphony.