Symphony No. 6 (Shostakovich)

The "Symphony No. 6 in B minor, Op. 54" by Dmitri Shostakovich was written in 1939, and first performed in Leningrad on 21 November 1939 by the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra under Evgeny Mravinsky.

tructure

"Symphony No. 6" is in three movements and is approximately 30 minutes in length:

# Largo
# Allegro
# Presto

The Sixth Symphony is unusual in structure, beginning with a long and introspective slow movement, followed by two short movements: a scherzo and a "full-blooded and debauched music-hall galop". The third movement galop is the movement Shostakovich himself thought was most successful. On average, the first movement is 15-20 minutes long, the second movement is 4-6 minutes long, and the third movement is 5-7 minutes long.

Orchestration

This symphony is scored for piccolo, 2 flutes, 3 oboes, cor anglais, 3 clarinets, bass clarinet, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon , 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, snare drum, bass drum, cymbals, triangle, tambourine, tam-tam, xylophone, strings, harp and celesta.

History

The Sixth Symphony was originally said to be a large-scale "Lenin Symphony" - a project which was often announced, but never materialised. Shostakovich had announced once in September 1938 that he was anxious to work on his Sixth Symphony, which would be a monumental composition for soloists, chorus and orchestra employing the poem "Vladimir Ilyich Lenin" by Vladimir Mayakovsky, but the declamatory nature of the poem made it difficult to set. He later tried to incorporate other literature about Lenin in his new symphony, but without success. In January 1939, he spoke about the Sixth Symphony in a radio address, with no mention of Lenin or any extramusical associations. [Fay, 115.]

The purely instrumental "Symphony No. 6" was completed in September 1939. Shostakovich commented on it in the press:

The musical character of the Sixth Symphony will differ from the mood and emotional tone of the Fifth Symphony, in which moments of tragedy and tension were characteristic. In my latest symphony, music of a contemplative and lyrical order predominates. I wanted to convey in it the moods of spring, joy, youth. [Quoted in Fay, 115.]

On 21 November 1939, exactly two years after the première of the "Symphony No. 5", the première of the "Symphony No. 6" took place in the Large Hall of the Leningrad Philharmonic in Leningrad by the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra under Evgeny Mravinsky, which was the same location and performers as the première of his last symphony. The symphony had a successful première, and the finale was encored. However, although a local critic lauded Shostakovich for further freeing himself from formalistic tendencies in his new symphony, the work was later criticised for its ungainly structure and the jarring juxtaposition of moods. The fact that the symphony was performed during a 10-day festival of Soviet music which included patriotic works by Prokofiev (excerpts from "Alexander Nevsky") and Shaporin ("On the Field of Kulikovo") probably did not help. [Fay, 115-16.]

The first recording was made by Leopold Stokowski with the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1940.

References

Bibliography

* Fay, Laurel (1999). "Shostakovich: A Life". Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-513438-9.

External links

* [http://www.shostakovich.com/may2001.html Program note by the London Shostakovich Orchestra]