Samuel Barber was born in West Chester, Pennsylvania, on March 9, 1910, and died in New York on January 23, 1981. The first performance of the Symphony No. 1 took place at the Teatro Adriano in Rome, Italy, on December 13, 1936, with Bernardino Molinari conducting the Philharmonic Augusteo Orchestra. The Symphony No. 1 is scored for three flutes (3rd doubling piccolo), two oboes, English horn, two clarinets, bass clarinet, two bassoons, contrabassoon, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, bass drums, cymbals, harp, and strings. Approximate performance time is nineteen minutes.
American composer Samuel Barber began work on his Symphony No. 1 in August, 1935, while in Maine. That fall, Barber traveled to Italy to begin his studies at the American Academy in Rome. Barber completed his Symphony No. 1 on February 24, 1936. Barber dedicated the work to Gian Carlo Menotti. The premiere took place at Rome’s Adriano Theater on December 13, 1936, with Bernardino Molinari conducting the Philharmonic Augusteo Orchestra.
The next day, Barber’s String Quartet received its premiere at the American Academy. Barber later arranged the Quartet’s slow-tempo movement for string orchestra. That arrangement, Barber’s Adagio for Strings, premiered on November 5, 1938, in a broadcast concert by the NBC Symphony Orchestra and the legendary Italian maestro Arturo Toscanini. The concert, which also featured the premiere of Barber’s Essay for Orchestra, helped establish Samuel Barber as one of America’s most promising young composers.
Barber’s Symphony No. 1 received considerable attention and praise as well. The Symphony’s American premiere took place on January 21, 1937. Rudolf Ringwall conducted the Cleveland Orchestra. On March 24, Artur Rodzinski led the New York Philharmonic in the first of three Carnegie Hall performances of the Symphony. At work’s close, the Carnegie Hall audience called Barber to the stage numerous times. Rodzinski conducted the Barber Symphony No. 1 throughout Europe. On July 25, 1937, Rodzinski led the Vienna Philharmonic in the opening concert of that year’s Salzburg Festival, in a program that included the Barber Symphony No. 1. This marked the first time in the history of the Salzburg Festival that a concert featured a symphonic work by an American composer.
In 1942, Barber revised his First Symphony, including the composition of an entirely new scherzo portion. Bruno Walter (who led the first performances of Gustav Mahler’s 9th Symphony and Das lied von der Erde) conducted the Philadelphia Orchestra in the February 18, 1944 premiere of the Barber Symphony’s revised version. The following January, Walter and the New York Philharmonic recorded the Barber Symphony No. 1 for Columbia Records.
In his First Symphony, Samuel Barber turned to the Seventh Symphony (1924) of Finnish composer Jean Sibelius as a structural model. Both works are cast in a single movement. But within that construct, it is possible to discern a series of individual symphonic movements. During the brief course of the Sibelius Seventh and Barber First, the composers explore an ingenious metamorphosis of themes, couched in ever-shifting tempos and orchestral colors.
Samuel Barber authored the following program notes for his Symphony No. 1:
The form of my Symphony in One Movement is a synthetic treatment of the four-movement classical symphony. It is based on three themes of the initial Allegro non troppo, which retain throughout the work their fundamental character. The Allegro opens with the usual exposition of a main theme, a more lyrical second theme, and a closing theme. After a brief development of the three themes, instead of the customary recapitulation, the first theme, in diminution forms the basis of a scherzo section (Vivace). The second theme (oboe over muted strings) then appears in augmentation, in an extended Andante tranquillo. An intense crescendo introduces the finale, which is a short passacaglia based on the first theme (introduced by the violoncelli and contra-bassi), over which, together with figures from other themes, the closing theme is woven, thus serving as a recapitulation for the entire symphony.
—Samuel Barber
https://www.wisemusicclassical.com/work/26072/Symphony-No-1-in-One-Movement--Samuel-Barber/