Nikolai Myaskovsky's Symphony No. 20 in E major, his Op. 50, was written in 1940. It is dedicated to Yuri Shaporin. The symphony was premiered on 28 November 1940 by Nikolai Golovanov conducting the Large All-Union Radio SO. It has three movements:
The first movement is in sonata form. The Adagio is on two themes, in C and in A, which appear contrapuntally at the reappearance of the first; it has the form A–B (l'Istesso tempo, Andantino)–A'–B'–coda. The finale is a rondo whose E major concluding pages incorporate a climactic reappearance by the main theme of the Adagio, leading Richard Taruskin to remark of this symphony that it is Myaskovsky's "Land of Hope and Glory".Richard Taruskin, , page 290.
References
Recordings Yevgeny Svetlanov, Russian Federation Academic Symphony Orchestra, 1991-3 recordings appearing variously on Russian Disc, Olympia OCD 739, and Warner CDs