| Symphony No. 3 | |
|---|---|
| by Leevi Madetoja | |
&sq=&lang=&file=File:Leevi_Madetoja_1925.jpg) The composer (c. 1925) | |
| Key | A major |
| Opus | 55 |
| Composed | 1925–1926 |
| Duration | Approx. 31 minutes |
| Movements | 4 |
| Premiere | |
| Date | 8 April 1926 |
| Location | Helsinki, Finland |
| Conductor | Leevi Madetoja |
| Performers | Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra |
The Symphony No. 3 in A major, Op. 55, is a four-movement orchestral composition by the Finnish composer Leevi Madetoja, who wrote the piece from 1925–26 while vacationing in Paris, before returning to Helsinki, Finland to complete the work. Optimistic and pastorale in character, the symphony is today considered one of the finest symphonies in the post-Sibelian, Finnish orchestral canon; indeed, a "masterpiece ... equal in stature" to Sibelius's seven essays in the form. Although technically his penultimate symphonic composition (a fourth symphony was lost and thus never completed), the Third is nonetheless—due to its successor's fate—Madetoja's final addition to the repertoire.
The Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra premiered the new symphony in Helsinki on 8 April 1926 under the composer's baton. Although Madetoja received the usual praise, the new piece admittedly perplexed its audience, which had expected a dramatic, patriotic statement similar to those its two monumental predecessors, the Second Symphony (1918) and The Ostrobothnians (1924), had made; the Third Symphony's (subsequent) significance thus eluded nearly everyone.