Space Symphony in F-sharp minor "In Memory of Yuri Gagarin" - Konstantin Ivanov

Bolshoi Symphony Orchestra of All-Union Radio and Television conducted by Konstantin Ivanov.

I - Moderato: 0:00
II - Scherzo. Allegro vivace: 6:46
III - Finale. Moderato assai - Allegro agitato: 12:31

Ivanov's Space Symphony was composed in 1975, being recorded soon after in 1977 for a vinyl of the Melodiya label. Yuri Gagarin was the first human being to travel to outer space, aboard the Vostok 1 spacecraft on April 12 of 1961. After this milestone, he was seen as a public hero in his homeland. He died on March 27 of 1968, when the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 fighter he was piloting during a routine flight crashed nearby of Kirzhach. Because of the secrecy surrounding the investigation of this accident, the reason of this crash has never been fully confirmed.

The work tries to convey the first space trip of the Soviet cosmonaut framed in a climate of tragic memory. However, it is not a descriptive work, as it is done in a very free way, guided only by the expressiveness of the music, because it does not have any note on its real meaning. It is also important to remark that the work is divided in three movements and not actually four, as many people may believe. For some reason, people tend to split the third movement in two.

The first movement is structured in an expanded ternary form (A-B-A'-B'-A''). it begins with a brief introduction full of sinister and mysterious sounds. The brass presents a cold and melancholic main theme, perhaps reflecting the solitude of Gagarin in space. The strings take it and develop it, along with the opening eerie spacial sound effects. The middle section opens with the english horn presenting an even more desolate second theme, which is briefly developed as well. Quickly the main theme is recapitulated, followed by a slight variation of the second theme. The bassoon, followed by the brass, recapitulates the main theme, leading to an enigmatic coda which replicates the introduction.

The second movement is a scherzo in ternary form. After a violent and dissonant opening, a rhythmic theme is presented vivaciously. The music turns almost mystical as a yearning motive rises over simple ostinatos. The trio opens with a lyrical theme of Russian flavour, which is an indirect quote to the song that Gagarin sung while during the re-entry into the Earths' atomsphere: "The Motherland Hears, The Motherland Knows", composed by Shostakovich in 1951. After a climax on this beautiful, lyrical theme, the scherzo is then resumed. The movement ends with a massive climax based on the main theme.

The third movement is very free in form, not adopting any standard structure. It begins with the same mysterious sounds heard in the beginning of the first movement, fragments from the first movement's main theme comes back, but in a twisted way, in the flute and english horn. The whole orchestra join in a massive, dissonant climax, which could represent the space race itself. The strings then present sketches of a rhythmic, almost parodic theme, which leads to a climax of great solemnity. The clarinet appears in a lyrical solo that offers some relief, perhaps as a reflection of the view of the earth from space.

Themes heard in previous movements are briefly quoted in a disjointed, fragmentary passage. The strings present again the rhythmic theme, which slowly rises in a more and more menacing way, culminating in a climax of great violence and dissonance. For the third thime, the rhythmic theme reappears, leading this time to a solemn climax as we heard before. The lyrical melody heard in the clarinet reappears on the strings as a consolatory relief. A glaciar coda, quoting the mysterious sounds from the beginning, remind us of the main idea of the work: the tribute to the missing cosmonaut.

Picture: Photograph of Yuri Gagarin shortly before the launch of Vostok 1.

Musical analysis mostly written by myself. Source: https://bit.ly/3DG583U