Leader, Mouland Begbie
Conductor, Ian Whyte
Symphony No. 2, in B minor Borodin
The history of Borodin's Second Symphony is closely linked with that of his opera Prince Igor. The first ideas for the symphony occurred to him early in 1869, but in April of that year Stassov suggested the opera subject to him, and for a time he devoted all his energies to Igor. Then he decided (temporarily) that the subject was unsuitable. ' Don't worry about it ', he wrote to Stassov. ' The material won't be wasted. It will all go into my Second Symphony.'
Accordingly the first movement of the symphony was written in 1871. During the period 1874-76 he was working at both opera and symphony, and the last two movements of the symphony were based on. themes originally intended for an epilogue to Igor.