Symphony in Three Movements

The sheer ferocity of expression that characterises much of Stravinsky’s Symphony in Three Movements, composed between 1942 and 1945 and premiered in New York City the following year, seems a far cry from the elegant neo-classical style the composer had cultivated over previous decades. Indeed, its pulsating and jagged rhythmic patterns and often densely scored orchestral sonorities recapture the same level of violent energy that had been unleashed in his 1913 ballet The Rite of Spring. This is very much a work born out of the turbulent and uncertain political situation of the Second World War. The composer admitted that the opening movement, juxtaposing sharply contrasted musical ideas in block-like sections, had been written in direct response to a documentary on Japanese scorched-earth tactics in China. Likewise, newsreel footage of goose-stepping soldiers and the rise of the Allies in eventually overcoming the German war machine, inspired the tempestuous closing section of the “Con moto” finale which culminates in an exhilarating, brashly scored, almost Hollywood-style chord.