Scoring
1.picc.1.corA.3(II=Ebcl,III=bcl).2(II=dbn)-2.1.1.1-perc:SD/xyl-hp-strings
Abbreviations (PDF)
Publisher
VAAP
Territory
This work is available from Boosey & Hawkes
/ Sikorski for the UK, British Commonwealth (excluding Canada), Republic of Ireland, Germany, Switzerland, Denmark, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Turkey, Israel.
Availability
World Premiere
26/04/1965
Leningrad
Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra / Igor Blazhkov
Programme Note
Repertoire Note
Shostakovich wrote these five tiny orchestral sketches in a single day, on June 9th 1935. At the time he was planning his gigantic 4th Symphony and these haunting and fragile Fragments reflect the bleak and tragic sound world that he was intending to explore in his new symphony. Each movement concentrates on a different combination of instruments and inhabits its own highly defined sound-world.
Among the most mysterious and least known of Shostakovich’s orchestral works, these little-known and rarely played pieces make an ideal foil to the grandeur and scale of the more well-known symphonies.
Note by Gerard McBurney