Symphony No. 1; Turkish

A pupil of Rimsky-Korsakov and Director of the Moscow Conservatory, Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov is most famous for his evocative Caucasian Sketches [8.553405]. He was always interested in the music of the ethnic minorities in the Soviet Union and in later life he pursued an interest in the music of the Turkish peoples, composing the Turkish Fragments, Op. 62 in 1930. This richly melodic suite is notable for its characteristically oriental turns of phrase. Many years earlier, in 1908, he wrote his Symphony No. 1 in E minor, Op. 46 which, with its solemn evocations of liturgical music, confi rmed him in the lineage of eminent Russian symphonists.