Scherzo. Op. 7
Opus 7
1924 year
premiere:
11-February-1981
The Grand Hall of the Leningrad Philharmonic
first publication:
Collected Works, vol. 10. Muzyka, 1984.
Scherzo in E flat major
In contrast to Scherzo, Op. 1, the Scherzo Op. 7 was scored for large orchestra with piano.
Written in the spring and autumn of 1923 and completed in Leningrad. The date at the end of the score—15 October 1924—shows the time the work was completed.
The work was dedicated to Petr Borisovich Ryazanov (Professor of composition at the Leningrad Conservatory).
Certain fragments of Scherzo in E flat major were reused by Shostakovich in his music for the film New Babylon, Op. 18, part 1.
The orchestral version of Scherzo was first performed on 11 February 1981 in the Grand Hall of the Leningrad Philharmonic under the baton of Rozhdestvensky. It was first published in 1984 by Muzyka Publishers in Shostakovich’s Collected Works (Vol. 10).
On 17 February 1996, Scherzo in E Flat Major for Orchestra was performed in London’s Royal Festival Hall by the BBC Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Mark Elder. In May of the same year, a recording of the concert was broadcast on BBC radio.
The manuscript of the score is kept in the Central State Archive of Literature and Art of St. Petersburg.
recordings:
USSR Ministry of Culture Symphony Orchestra, Gennadi ROZHDESTVENSKY (conductor). 1982 // Melodiya C10 19103 004 (1983)