The Russian Symphony Part 1

So I started writing about the piece we will talk about today, and then I realized I’d listened to and wrote about the wrong symphony. 

We chatted a bit yesterday about Rubinstein’s background and his… position in the classical music scene in Russia, and it will become more significant after next week’s articles, but this work can be viewed perhaps as a representation of a Germanic Russian in Russia before things start to get really nationalistic and really Russian.
The second symphony from this Russian composer doesn’t feel terribly Russian or Symphonic. Perhaps in a world before Debussy’s La Mer, this piece would feel less like a large-scale tone poem, something it seemed to lean toward as the composer worked on the piece later.
Despite Liszt’s lack of willingness to give aid to the young, poor Rubinstein, the symphony bears a dedication to Liszt. Its first performance was on March 6, 1852, and the American Symphony program notes state:

… it won the favor of audiences with its magnificent trumpet calls, swirling melodies, and solid structure. The ocean, according to Rubinstein, is depicted in the contrasts between the agitated and peaceful passages, the deep lyricism of the second movement, and the heroic chorale at the end of the fourth movement, when man’s spirit gains domination over the power of the ocean.