The Symphony No. 1 in D major, Op. 4 (JSV 38), is a four-movement orchestral work written from 1866 to 1867 by the Norwegian composer Johan Svendsen while he was a music student at the Leipzig Conservatory. The first movement premiered in Leipzig on 9 May 1866 at the Altes Gewandhaus, with Svendsen conducting; a year later in the same location, he conducted Movements IIâÂÂIV for the first time. These earlier partial performances notwithstanding, the symphonyâÂÂin its entiretyâÂÂreceived its premiere in Kristiania (now Oslo), Norway, on 12 October 1967, again under the composer's baton.
The First Symphony was an instant success that placed Svendsen at the forefront of Norwegian art music and squarely within the European symphonic tradition. The composer's friend and countryman, Edvard Grieg, was so moved by the symphony that he withdrew his own work in the genre, the Symphony in C minor (EG 119; 1864); Grieg, in a review, praised "the perfect balance between ideas and technique", and called the orchestration among "the best in existence" ... "God alone knows where Svendsen got it all from".
In 1874, Svendsen completed his next (and final) work in the genre: the Symphony No. 2 in B-flat major, Op. 15.
The Symphony No. 1 is in four movements:
The First Symphony is scored for the following instruments, organized by family (woodwinds, brass, percussion, and strings):
The sortable table below lists commercially available recordings of Svendsen's First Symphony: