Suite No. 2 for Jazz Orchestra

Suite No. 2 for Jazz Orchestra 
Sans op. (1938)

     Suite No. 2 for Jazz Orchestra in Three Movements (1. Scherzo, 2. Lullaby, 3. Serenade) was written in 1938 as ordered by the newly created USSR State Jazz Orchestra.
     Shostakovich’s suite occupied the central place in the new collective’s first programme. The head conductor of the State Jazz Orchestra Viktor Knushevitsky testifies that the premiere of this orchestra programme took place in November, during the Decade of Soviet Music, in the House of Unions Hall of Columns.
     The score and parts of Suite No. 2 for Jazz Orchestra have not survived.
     In 1999, a rough draft of all three pieces was found in Dmitri Shostakovich’s personal depository in the Glinka State Central Museum of Musical Culture (GSCMMC) among the unidentified author’s manuscripts. The author’s manuscript does not have a general heading, and the pieces are not arranged in it in the order they are in the final version of the composition.
     The rough drafts found in Dmitri Shostakovich’s personal depository at GSCMMC laid the foundation for this work’s return to the concert stage. In 2000, British composer Gerard McBurney revived and instrumented all three movements of Suite No. 2.
     On 9 September 2000, the world premiere of the revived composition took place in the Albert Hall in London. The BBC orchestra was conducted by Colin Davis. In Moscow, Suite No. 2 for Jazz Orchestra in Gerard McBurney’s instrumentation was heard for the first time on 19 September 2001 in the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall as performed by the State Symphonic Orchestra under the direction of Vladimir Ponkin.