Symphony for Strings

Symphony for Strings
by Georgy Sviridov
Sviridov c. 1939
Other name	Chamber Symphony
Opus	14
Composed	1940
Publisher	Ruslania
Duration	c. 20 minutes
Movements	4
Premiere
Date	December 28, 1940 (1940-12-28)
Location	Large Hall of the Leningrad Philharmonia Leningrad, Russian SFSR
Performers	Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra Eduard Grikurov (conductor)

The Symphony for Strings (Russian: Симфония для струнного оркестра, romanized: Simfoniya dlya strunnogo orkestra, lit. 'Symphony for String Orchestra'; also known as the Chamber Symphony),^[1] Op. 14 is a four-movement composition for string orchestra by Georgy Sviridov. He composed the work during a period of creative crisis, when he began to reject the works of Igor Stravinsky and Dmitri Shostakovich, and struggled to develop his own style. The work was premiered on December 28, 1940, by the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Eduard Grikurov. The work immediately engendered intense debate, against and in defense of Sviridov, among members of the Union of Soviet Composers. After 1943, the Symphony for Strings was not performed again until the composer rediscovered the score among his personal papers in the 1980s, after which he unsuccessfully attempted to revise it. Its first modern performance occurred on June 28, 2000, in Saint Petersburg, with the Moscow Soloists conducted by Yuri Bashmet.