Symphony No. 6 (Myaskovsky)

The symphony is scored for 3 flutes (3rd doubling piccolo), 3 oboes, cor anglais, 2 clarinets, bass clarinet, 3 bassoons, contrabassoon, 6 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, cymbals, bass drum, side drum, celesta, harp, strings and mixed chorus. It has four movements: • I Poco largamente – Allegro feroce, a large and turbulent sonata-allegro • II Presto tenebroso, a scherzo with an Andante moderato trio • III Andante appassionato, a romantic slow movement • IV Allegro vivace – Più sostenuto – Andante molto espressivo, an episodic finale beginning with a bright E-flat major fantasia on the French revolutionary songs Ah! ça ira and Carmagnole then turning to a dark C minor with the Dies Irae. A clarinet introduces the melody of a Russian Orthodox burial hymn, 'How the Soul Parted from the Body' (Shto mui vidyeli? – 'What did we see? A miraculous wonder, a dead body ...'). The chorus enters with wailing cries that punctuate a setting of the hymn. In the coda the main theme of the third movement returns as the basis of a peaceful epilogue. The full score was published by Universal Edition, Vienna in 1925. Myaskovsky revised the work in 1947. In this later version the chorus is optional. ==Recordings==

There have been several recordings of this symphony, conducted by, among others, Kirill Kondrashin (twice), Yevgeny Svetlanov, Dmitry Liss, Neeme Järvi, Veronika Dudarova and Robert Stankovsky. Only Svetlanov – thus far the only conductor who recorded all 27 Myaskovsky symphonies – omitted the chorus in the finale. ==References==