Alla Pavlova (b. 1952)
Symphony No. 1 'Farewell Russia' Symphony No. 3
Alla Pavlova is a composer and musicologist. In 1983 she
received her Master's Degree at the Gnesin Academy of Music in Moscow. She
studied composition with Armen Shakhbagian. From 1983 to 1986 she lived in the
Bulgarian capital, Sofia, where she worked for the Union of Bulgarian Composers
and the Bulgarian National Opera. She spent the years from 1986 to 1990 in
Moscow, working for the Russian Musical Society Board, and since 1990 has lived
in New York, where she is a member of New York Women Composers, Inc. Alla
Pavlova has written a number of compositions for orchestra, including four
symphonies, as well as other instrumental and vocal works that have been
performed in the United States, Europe, and Canada. She has a special interest
in writing music for film, dance, theatre, and children. Her articles, now
numbering over a hundred, have appeared in Russian as well as international
publications.
Symphony No. 1 'Farewell Russia', for chamber orchestra, was
composed in October 1994, and is dedicated to Russia. It was first performed at
the American Music Concert in Moscow on 30th May, 1995, in the Concert Hall of
the Union of Russian Composers, and recorded the following day. It was written
after the composer's trip to Moscow in July 1994, and is, in a way, a response
to her impressions of the new realities of life in her native country, which
she was visiting to participate in the concert of the New York Women Composers,
Inc. The concert was dedicated to American Independence Day, and two of Alla
Pavlova's compositions, Epitaph and Broadway's Song, were performed. Alla
Pavlova had left Moscow and moved to America when Russia was still a Soviet
state and a part of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. After several
years away, in 1994 Moscow was unrecognisable and seemed to her a completely
new, unfamiliar place where she had never been before. It was a period when the
old, rigid Soviet structures were broken down, while the new ones had not been
formed enough to provide some degree of stability. Among all her old friends in
Moscow was a feeling of insecurity and depression, with no idea what the next
day would bring. ' It was so painful for me to see that the country where we
were born and brought up', she writes, 'where we had received our first, childish
impressions of the world, where we were shaped and matured as individuals, that
this country seemed no longer to exist'.
In an interview in April 1996 for the Morning Edition NPR on
her music, Alla Pavlova stressed that the name of the symphony, Farewell
Russia, expresses not only her personal feelings but, she believes, conveys the
moods and thoughts of many people in Russia at that particular time of drastic
changes in their society. She chose the title through her love for Russia,
perhaps an idealised Russia of her own imagining.
The Symphony is written for a chamber orchestra consisting
of eleven instruments, string quintet, two flutes, piccolo, harp, piano,
vibraphone, and tam-tam. It is in a single extended movement, throughout which
thoughts, moods, and memories develop and interplay. Alla Pavlova has referred
to it as 'a symphony with piano solos', because it has three piano solos.
Symphony No. 3 was written in August and September 2000. The
work is tonal and romantic in conception. For many years, Alla Pavlova lived in
New York on Riverside Drive, near the monument of Joan of Arc. The music of the
symphony was inspired by this monument, but has no further programme. It would
be wrong to see this music as a musical narration of the story of Joan of Arc,
or a psychological portrait. The symphony is a contemplation on the mission
which every human being on earth has, a destiny, God's will, which leads to
events, accomplishments, and actions that are at times unthinkable, and the
life of Joan of Arc is a very strong example of this concept. This music is
also contemplation on the purpose of one's life, on the power of beauty and
simplicity, on joy, but at the same time the tragedy of being. 'It is my hope',
the composer writes, 'that this music will provide support and inspiration to
the listeners at difficult moments of their lives, and will strengthen their
faith in their destiny and in the profound significance of a human life'. There
is one other version of the symphony, a more traditional one, with slightly
different instrumentation and without the guitar. The work is dedicated to the
composer's mother.
Keith Anderson
Based on information provided by the composer