Uploaded May 2026 | Updated September 2026, 4 days ago
This video is provided for non-profit educational use only; please contact me at pranav.sivakumar@berkeley.edu regarding any copyright issues.
00:06 I. Largo
13:41 II. Molto allegro e tempestoso
22:04 III. Largo maestoso
Estonian National Symphony Orchestra conducted by Arvo Volmer (I believe this is the only commercial recording of the revised version.)
Eduard Tubin (1905-1982) was an Estonian composer and conductor, his country's most prolific and arguably greatest symphonist. For more on Tubin, see my score video of his eleventh symphony: youtube.com/watch?v=l-vYcU8buKo
Tubin's third symphony was written from late 1940 to 1942 and revised in 1968. As the "tempestoso" marking of the second movement suggests, this work stands out for its particularly turbulent quality, written as it was during the first Soviet and later German occupations of Estonia (when the Soviets returned, Tubin chose to flee Estonia for Sweden, where he would remain for the rest of his life.)
Still, in the middle of the chaos, one can find one of the most striking moments in Tubin's symphonic oeuvre; a stirring violin solo which one might associate far more readily with the Romantic movement in its quality than with the composer's typical titanic orchestral buildups and motivic tightness.
This video is provided for non-profit educational use only; please contact me at pranav.sivakumar@berkeley.edu regarding any copyright issues.
00:06 I. Largo
13:41 II. Molto allegro e tempestoso
22:04 III. Largo maestoso
Estonian National Symphony Orchestra conducted by Arvo Volmer (I believe this is the only commercial recording of the revised version.)
Eduard Tubin (1905-1982) was an Estonian composer and conductor, his country's most prolific and arguably greatest symphonist. For more on Tubin, see my score video of his eleventh symphony: youtube.com/watch?v=l-vYcU8buKo
Tubin's third symphony was written from late 1940 to 1942 and revised in 1968. As the "tempestoso" marking of the second movement suggests, this work stands out for its particularly turbulent quality, written as it was during the first Soviet and later German occupations of Estonia (when the Soviets returned, Tubin chose to flee Estonia for Sweden, where he would remain for the rest of his life.)
Still, in the middle of the chaos, one can find one of the most striking moments in Tubin's symphonic oeuvre; a stirring violin solo which one might associate far more readily with the Romantic movement in its quality than with the composer's typical titanic orchestral buildups and motivic tightness.
