Second Symphony

Boris Papandopulo (1906 – 1991) is one of the most distinctive Croatian musicians of the 20th century. Papandopulo also worked as music writer, journalist, reviewer, pianist and piano accompanist; however, he achieved the peaks of his career in music as a composer. His composing oeuvre is imposing – Papandopulo composed almost 500 opuses: with great success he created instrumental (orchestral, concertante, chamber and solo), vocal and instrumental (for solo voice and choir), music-stage and film music. In all these kinds and genres he left a string of anthology-piece compositions of great artistic value. Papandopulo composed his Second Symphony “in only two months,” completing the work on April 1946. The work was premiered by the Zagreb Radio Orchestra conducted by the composer himself on May 8, 1946 in the Croatian Music Institute Hall during the Zagreb Radio Shows series. The solo of the 4th movement was sung by Marijana Radev. Papandopulo added program titles to each of the five movements: Road to Life, Resignation, Vision, Lyrical Intermezzo, Steps to Freedom. After a deeper analysis of the work, we notice that in three movements of Second Symphony Papandopulo used a lot of material from his earlier works. The third movement is thus a masterly instrumentation of his own 1932 piano composition Igra (Dance), better known as Scherzo fantastico. The fourth movement, Lyrical Intermezzo, is an instrumentation of the composer’s 1940 song Stara ljubavna pjesma (Old Love Song) for mezzo-soprano and piano. Although Papandopulo uses the musical expression and harmonic language rooted in the symphonic tradition of the 19th and early 20th centuries, the composer’s original “mark”, his masterly orchestration and his very personal and characteristic inclusion of music folklore give the Symphony a special place in the history of symphonic form in the years following World War II in Croatia. (Davor Merkaš)