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 Yevgeny Mravinsky.

Structure

Symphony No. 6 is in three movements and is approximately 30 minutes in length:
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".
According to music critic Herbert Glass, the "entire movement is based on the cell of a minor third, with a second theme - which follows without transition - the motif of a diminished seventh, with the trill at its close forming the third major ingredient of the movement - the two themes and the trill combined as a sort of super-theme. The composer lays this out as clearly as if he were teaching a music-appreciation class: do listen for it. Chamber music effects abound with, for instance, piccolo or flute, eerily alone or accompanied by the B-flat clarinets. There are walloping climaxes, too, each of which dies away into the gloom. Note, too, the composer's wonderful spotlighting of the melancholy English horn, a lone figure after the din has evaporated."
The third movement galop is the movement Shostakovich himself thought was most successful. Music critic Daniel Hathaway noted that "Snare drums ratcheted up the riot of brutal sound in the Scherzo and references to the William Tell Overture and laughing trombones added a hilarious burlesque quality to the finale." 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.

Instrumentation

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

History

The Sixth Symphony was originally planned 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.
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.

On 21 November 1939, exactly two years after the premiere of the Symphony No. 5, the premiere of the Symphony No. 6 took place in the Large Hall of the Leningrad Philharmonic in Leningrad by the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra under Yevgeny Mravinsky—the same location and performers. In the same programme was the Romantic Poem for violin and orchestra of Zhelobinsky. The symphony had a successful premiere, 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 and Shaporin probably did not help.
The first recording was made by Leopold Stokowski with the Philadelphia Orchestra for RCA Victor in December 1940.

Notable recordings

Notable recordings of this symphony include:
OrchestraConductorRecord companyYear of recordingFormat
New York PhilharmonicFritz ReinerGuild1943*CD
Leningrad Philharmonic OrchestraYevgeny MravinskyMelodiya1946LP
London Philharmonic OrchestraSir Adrian BoultEverest Records1958CD
Moscow Philharmonic OrchestraKirill KondrashinMelodiya1967CD
BBC Symphony OrchestraGennadi RozhdestvenskyBBC Legends1980CD
Royal Concertgebouw OrchestraBernard HaitinkDecca Classics1983CD
Royal Philharmonic OrchestraVladimir AshkenazyDecca Records1988CD
Oslo Philharmonic OrchestraMariss JansonsEMI Classics1992CD
National Symphony OrchestraMstislav RostropovichTeldec1994CD
Berlin Symphony OrchestraKurt SanderlingBerlin Classics1994CD
Dallas Symphony OrchestraAndrew LittonDelos2000CD
BBC National Orchestra of WalesMark WigglesworthBIS Records2001CD
Kirov OrchestraValery GergievPhilips Classics2002CD
St. Petersburg Philharmonic OrchestraYuri TemirkanovWarner Classics2005CD
Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe VerdiOleg CaetaniArts Music2006CD
Gürzenich OrchestraDmitri KitayenkoCapriccio2008SACD
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic OrchestraVasily PetrenkoNaxos Records2010CD
Boston Symphony OrchestraAndris NelsonsDeutsche Grammophon2019CD

* = Mono recording

= recorded live in Birmingham

Source: arkivmusic.com