Gruß aus dem Urlaub

von LePenseur

 

 

... diesmal ganz speziell an den geschätzten Kollegen Lechner, dem die Symphonie No. 6 in es-moll, op. 23 von Nikolai Mjaskowski, komponiert in den Jahren 1921-23, (vermutlich/hoffentlich!) gefallen wird:

 

1. Poco largamente, ma allegro - Allegro feroce 

2. Presto tenebroso - Andante moderato - Presto (22:30) 

3. Andante appassionato - Molto più appassionato e rubato - Ancora più animato - Andante sostenuto, con tenerezza e gran espressione (31:26) 

4. Allegro molto vivace (46:32)

 

Youtube liefert eine m.E. recht gute Bescheibung des Werkes (das in dieser Aufnahme durch das Göte-borg Symphonieorchester unter Neeme Järvi erklingt):

The Symphony No. 6 in E-flat minor, Op. 23 was composed between 1921 and 1923. It is the largest and most ambitious of his 27 symphonies, planned on a Mahlerian scale, and uses a chorus in the finale. It has been described as 'probably the most significant Russian symphony between Tchaikovsky's Pathétique and the Fourth Symphony of Shostakovich'. (Myaskovsky in fact wrote part of the work in Klin, where Tchaikovsky wrote the Pathétique.) The premiere took place at the Bolshoi Theatre, Moscow on 4 May 1924, conducted by Nikolai Golovanov and was a notable success. 

Soviet commentators used to describe the work as an attempt to portray the develop-ment and early struggles of the Soviet state, but it is now known that its roots were more personal. The harsh, emphatically descending chordal theme with which the symphony begins apparently arose in the composer's mind at a mass rally in which he heard the Soviet Procurator Nikolai Krylenko conclude his speech with the call "Death, death to the enemies of the revolution!" 

Myaskovsky had been affected by the deaths of his father, his close friend Alexander Revidzev and his aunt Yelikonida Konstantinovna Myaskovskaya, and especially by seeing his aunt’s body in a bleak, empty Petrograd flat during the winter of 1920. In 1919 the painter Lopatinsky, who had been living in Paris, sang Myaskovsky some French Revolutionary songs which were still current among Parisian workers: these would find their way into the symphony's finale. He was also influenced by Les Aubes (The Dawns), a verse drama by the Belgian writer Emile Verhaeren, which enacted the death of a revolutionary hero and his funeral 

The scherzo is apparently inspired by the winter winds blowing outside the house where the composer's aunt lay dead, with an Andante moderato trio that loosely references the simpleton's Lament in Mussorgsky's Boris Godonuv, Act IV, Scene II, ("Tears, bitter tears must fall, Our holy people must weep ... Woe, woe unto Russia! Weep, weep Russian folk, Hungry folk") 

The episodic finale begins with a bright E flat major fantasia on the French revolu-tionary 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.

Das Werk ist mit seiner Dauer von über einer Stunde Mjaskowskis längste Symphonie und sticht auch durch seine große Orchesterbesetzung (so bspw. dreifaches Holz, 6 Hörner, zahlreiches Schlagwerk, Harfe, Celesta und Chor) aus dem übrigen Symphonie-Korpus des Komponisten hervor.

Ein großes Werk, dessen musikalisches Format m.E. die eingesetzten Mittel mehr als rechtfertigt — ein auch ein Jahrhundert nach seiner Entstehung frisch und lebendig anzuhörendes Meisterwerk!