About this edition
Mily Balakirev's Symphony No. 1 in C major occupies a singular place in Russian music history: it is the work in which the leader of the nationalist circle known as "The Five" finally proved, after decades of advocacy for a Russian symphonic school, that such a school could produce a symphony of real substance. Sketched as early as 1864 but not completed until 1897, the symphony spans Balakirev's entire creative arc, fusing the folk-inflected melodic invention and orientalist color of his youth with the structural discipline of his later years. The result — four movements crowned by an exuberant, dance-driven finale — stands as one of the pillars of Russian nationalist symphonism, an important model for the generation of Russian symphonists who followed.
This edition reproduces the full orchestral score as issued by Jul. Heinrich Zimmermann of Leipzig, a publishing house that played a central role in bringing Russian orchestral music to Western European audiences and performers around the turn of the twentieth century. Though undated, the print bears plate number Z. 2944 and is assignable to circa 1900 — placing it within just a few years of the symphony's 1897 completion and its premiere under Balakirev's own baton in St. Petersburg the following year. As one of the earliest full scores through which the work circulated outside Russia, this Zimmermann printing preserves the symphony exactly as it was first encountered by conductors, orchestras, and scholars in the West.
About this edition:
- Full orchestral score, presenting all instrumental parts in standard score format
- Page size: 8.5 x 11 inches
- Reproduced from a public domain historical source
- Published by Purple 4R Publishing
This edition reproduces a public domain historical score, and we're delighted to bring it back into circulation in a clean, legible format — making Balakirev's landmark symphony accessible once again to conductors, performers, students, and scholars eager to explore a founding work of the Russian symphonic tradition.