Symphony No. 6

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 quick 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". 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 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."