Symphony No. 3 Op. 20 The First of May

Against the backdrop of increasingly strict guidelines for the creation of art and music from the beginning of the 1930s, Shostakovich presented with his Symphony No.3 a work that satisfied a number of the required characteristics: alongside the clear, tonal writing and insistent rhythms, the choral finale triumphantly sings of the revolutionary celebration of May Day. The composer spoke in a letter of the “spirit of peaceful reconstruction” which he wanted to express in his new work. Despite its initial success, Shostakovich's Third was categorised as “formalistic” and disappeared from the repertoire for the next 30 years.

This volume is part of the revised and corrected new edition of all 15 symphonies by Dmitri Shostakovich published by Boosey & Hawkes and Sikorski as large format study scores for optimal legibility. All scores and the related orchestral parts have been newly computer typeset, and the orchestral parts are also compatible for performance use with scores in “The New Collected Works of Dmitri Shostakovich”.