Symphony No. 1

SKU: FG.55011-588-0

ISBN 9790550115880.

I wrote my First Symphony while studying in the United States in 1955, but the work has since undergone two substantial changes. The original four-movement structure changed into a two-movement structure in 1988, with an expansive, Romantic and pathos-laden principal movement followed by a grotesque and ironic scherzo. This version seems to owe something to Dmitri Shostakovich, one of the idols of 1950s Modernism in Finland. Later I found that the structure was out of balance, and in 2003 I added a lyrical slow movement (Poetico) between the two existing ones. In order to preserve the 1950s spirit of the original work, I based the slow movement on solo song written around the same time (third movement from the song cycle Die Liebenden).