Uploaded March 2025 | Updated September 2026, 4 days ago
00:06 Moderato tranquillo
09:13 Adagio
16:32 Menuetto: Reminiscenza
19:16 Allegro con brio
Moscow Symphony Orchestra conducted by Dmitry Yablonsky
Jānis Ivanovs (1906-1983) was one of Latvia's most influential composers. For more on Ivanovs, see my score video of his fourth symphony "Atlantīda": youtube.com/watch?v=VfciueeCWtk
One of the reasons for Ivanovs' prolificity as a symphonist (his twenty-one symphonies are rivaled by few other 20th-century composers) is that he continued to compose right up until his death. Unlike other composers of his time, Ivanovs never changed his harmonic language to adapt to new 20th-century trends, but one can nevertheless find an evolution in his later music toward a rhythmically simpler, more melancholy and introspective style.
A classic example of this trend is Ivanovs' rather enigmatic 20th symphony, completed in 1981. Despite its somewhat withdrawn nature, the work bears notable hallmarks of Ivanovs' mature music; these include his use of extended tonality and polytonality (layering multiple keys on top of each other) and, in the second movement, a hauntingly beautiful evocation of folk song from Ivanovs' native region of Latgale.
00:06 Moderato tranquillo
09:13 Adagio
16:32 Menuetto: Reminiscenza
19:16 Allegro con brio
Moscow Symphony Orchestra conducted by Dmitry Yablonsky
Jānis Ivanovs (1906-1983) was one of Latvia's most influential composers. For more on Ivanovs, see my score video of his fourth symphony "Atlantīda": youtube.com/watch?v=VfciueeCWtk
One of the reasons for Ivanovs' prolificity as a symphonist (his twenty-one symphonies are rivaled by few other 20th-century composers) is that he continued to compose right up until his death. Unlike other composers of his time, Ivanovs never changed his harmonic language to adapt to new 20th-century trends, but one can nevertheless find an evolution in his later music toward a rhythmically simpler, more melancholy and introspective style.
A classic example of this trend is Ivanovs' rather enigmatic 20th symphony, completed in 1981. Despite its somewhat withdrawn nature, the work bears notable hallmarks of Ivanovs' mature music; these include his use of extended tonality and polytonality (layering multiple keys on top of each other) and, in the second movement, a hauntingly beautiful evocation of folk song from Ivanovs' native region of Latgale.
