Symphony No.1 in E major, Op. 26

The composer began to sketch the symphony in 1899. In January 1900 he tried it out at the piano in Moscow with this friend Alexander Goldenweiser. In this version for two pianos the work was played to various musicians, including Lyadov (who later that year conducted the premiere of the symphony, minus the last movement.) Scriabin wrote the bulk of the work in the summer of 1900, working on it intensively in the Moscow district of Daryino. In June 1900 he wrote to the publisher Belyayev that he was "very busy composing for orchestra", and three months later in September he reported: "During the summer I wrote a symphony (6 movements) and am now orchestrating it".