Symphony No. 3 in A minor, Op. 44

The symphony unfolds in three movements rather than the usual four, though it packs a scherzo-like fast section inside the middle movement.

I. Lento, Allegro moderato: A brief, murmuring motto on low winds and strings opens the work before the strings launch a restless, striving main theme. Listen for that opening motto: it returns, transformed, later in the symphony, stitching the movements together.

II. Adagio ma non troppo: A horn calls out over hushed strings, beginning a slow movement that gradually speeds up into a driving, agitated middle section before settling back into its opening calm. This movement effectively absorbs the slow movement and scherzo into one span.

III. Allegro: The finale mixes propulsive, dance-like energy with moments of dark lyricism, including a brief fugue, a passage where instruments chase each other with the same melodic line. A quotation of the ancient chant melody Dies irae, associated with death and judgment and used throughout Rachmaninoff's output, surfaces before the symphony drives to a forceful close.

Rachmaninoff composed his Third Symphony in 1935 and 1936 at his villa in Switzerland, years after leaving Russia for good following the 1917 revolution. It was his first symphony in nearly three decades, written after the disastrous 1897 premiere of his First Symphony had driven him away from the form for years. The Philadelphia Orchestra, led by Leopold Stokowski, gave the premiere in Philadelphia in 1936. Early audiences and critics responded coolly, finding it old-fashioned next to newer trends in American and European music, and Rachmaninoff himself was disappointed by the reception. The symphony fell into relative neglect for decades before conductors and orchestras gradually rediscovered it, and it is now performed regularly as a compact, concentrated late statement from a composer better known for his piano concertos.