The sixth symphony: those Vaughan Williams aficionados who attended the 1948 first performance, and who, up to that point, had considered the fourth symphony with its dissonance and brutality to be the exception in the composer’s symphonic output, would have quickly realised their mistake when, at the start of the premiere of the sixth, they heard this –
André Previn conducting the London Symphony Orchestra
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Gone were the spiritual consolations of the fifth to be replaced by the terrifying ostinato (the slow movement), the diabolus in musica (the scherzo) and strange, ghostly whisperings (the finale) –
André Previn conducting the London Symphony Orchestra
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Course materials:
The music:
André Previn – Symphony No. 6 in E Minor: Allegro
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General musical materials:
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Lovis Corinth (1858–1925): Self Portrait with Skeleton
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