The Symphony No. 6 in E-flat minor, Op. 23 by Nikolai Myaskovsky was composed between 1921 and 1923. It is the largest and most ambitious of his 27 symphonies, 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".[1] The premiere took place at the Bolshoi Theatre, Moscow on 4 May 1924, conducted by Nikolai Golovanov and was a notable success.
The descending chordal theme with which the symphony begins came to Myaskovsky while he attended 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!" The composer was also affected by the deaths of his father, his close friend Alexander Revidzev, and his aunt Yelikonida Konstantinovna Myaskovskaya;[2] he was especially shaken by seeing his aunt's body in an empty Petrograd flat during winter 1920. In 1919 the painter Boris Lopatinsky, who had been living in Paris, sang Myaskovsky some French Revolutionary songs which were still current among Parisian workers; some would later be incorporated 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.[1][3]