6ta de shostakovich biography

1939 symphony by Dmitri Shostakovich

The Symphony No. 6 in B minor, Op. 54 by Dmitri Shostakovich was written in 1939, and first performed in Leningrad on November 5, 1939 by the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra under Yevgeny Mravinsky.

Structure

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

The Sixth Symphony is unusual in structure: a 'regular' symphonic structure would contain a first movement in sonata form, a scherzo, a slow movement, and a quick finale, often also in sonata form.

This symphony, however, begins with a long and introspective slow movement, followed by two short movements: a scherzo and a "full-blooded and debauched music-hall galop".^[1]

According to music critic Herbert Glass, the "entire [first] 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 thi