Music with Ease > Classical Music > Concert Guide: Nationalist Era > Symphony No. 6 in C Minor - Glazunov

1. Adagio. Allegro passionato.
2. Andante. Variatioro.
3. Intermezzo. Allegretto.
4. Andante maestoso. Scherzando.

The first movement of Glazunov’s Sixth Symphony opens with an Adagio introduction, in which a theme is announced by the cellos and double basses and worked up in the strings and wind instruments. Imitations on the same theme follow, reaching a fortissimo climax in full orchestra. Chromatic harmonies, with a sustained tremolo in the strings, lead to the first theme, which in reality is a development of the theme in the introduction in different rhythm. The second theme is stated in the violins and again taken up in the woodwinds. Passages from the first theme then return against the second theme in a fortissimo climax. After a dramatic episode and a third part, a vigorous Coda ends the movement.

The second movement is a set of variations on a simple theme in the strings, among them a Scherzino, a Fugato and a Nocturne.

The third movement is in the form of a Scherzo and Trio and closes with the customary Coda. The final movement suggests Russian dance rhythm. Two themes are announced. The first appears in various tempi, after which the second is stated and the alternation of these two brings the movement to its close brilliantly and with great rapidity.