The Symphonie n° 6 in so minor COp 54 of Dmitri Chostakovitch was made up in 1939, two years after the Fifth symphony . It is less long than the latter, but especially seems more unbalanced, with a long first movement followed by two other briefs:

1. Largo

2. Allegro
3. Presto

Data sheet

• Title: Symphony n° 6 in so minor, COp 54
• Composition: 1939
• Creation:
• Lasted: 30 minutes

Orchestration

History

Composition

After the success of the Fifth , one announced the new symphony like vast a Lénine - Symphony , with soloists and choruses on the text of the poem Vladimir Ilyitch Lénine of Vladimir Maïakovski. As later with the Ninth symphony , waiting of the monumentalism was disappointed.

Creation and reception

This Symphonie was created on November 5th 1939 by the Philharmonic orchestra of Leningrad under the direction of Evgeni Mravinski, and the first recording was carried out by it by Leopold Stokowski with the Orchestre of Philadelphia in 1940.

In spite of a sharp success at the time of the first, it is the powerful contrast of moods which was reproached to the type-setter, but it was already some share announced by the finale of the Cinquième , and by this increasingly strong affinity of Chostakovitch with the universe and the writing mahlérienne.

Analyzes

Largo

The initial Largo is like dark and tragic contemplation. Its long stretched sentences seem to evoke a landscape of desolation or an alarming sidereal vacuum, which gives almost a character to him of " music of the sphères". The two other movements, much shorter, are at the same time typical of the type-setter and in the spirit of Prokofiev.

Allegro

The Allegro is full with joy and humor, but ends up turning to the caricature.

Presto

The Finale takes again this apparent cheerfulness which lets imagine, behind the frontage, like a macabre round.

Selective discography

References

See too

Related articles

• Dmitri Chostakovitch
• List of works of Dmitri Chostakovitch

External bonds

• Programme in a disc-concert by London Shostakovich Orchestrated

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