Symphony No.1

THE SYMPHONY No 1 was composed between January and October 1895; its premiere on March 15^th 1897 in St Petersburg under the baton of Alexander Glazunov was a complete failure. The performance was underdeveloped, and critics accused the composer of eclecticism. After this failure Rachmaninoff composed nothing for three years, the score was never published and was considered lost. It was not until 1944 that the musicologist Alexandr Osovski found the orchestral cymbals from which the score had been restored. And the second premiere of the Symphony under the baton of Alexander Gauk in Moscow on October 17^th 1945 was a great success. And in March 1948 it was performed by the Philadelphia Philharmonic under Eugene Ormandy.