Glazunov: Symphonies (5 CD)
Symphony No. 1 in E major, Op. 5
Symphony No. 2 in F-sharp minor, Op. 16
Symphony No. 3 in D major, Op. 33
Symphony No. 4 in E-flat major, Op. 48
Symphony No. 5 in B-flat major, Op. 55
Symphony No. 6 in C minor, Op. 58
Symphony No. 7 in F major, Op. 77
Symphony No. 8 in E-flat major, Op. 83
USSR Ministry of Culture Symphony Orchestra / Gennady Rozhdestvensky, conductor
Recorded in 1983-1985
It might be difficult to overestimate the role that one of the most prominent Russian composers Alexander Konstantinovich Glazunov played in the world music culture. Not only Glazunov's musical legacy made many geneneration speak of him with admiration as he has gone down in history as both a great musician and an outstanding cultural personality.
Symphonic genres took the main place among the composer's works. His eight symphonies became his eminent contribution to the development of Russian symphonism.
Before Glazunov's time two branches of Russian symphonic music had been formed - a genre epic one dating from the great Mikhail Glinka and developed in the works by the composers of The Five, and a lyrical and dramatic one that flourished in the compositions by Pyotr Tchaikovsky who left to us some of the works unbeaten in their power and expression. Continuing the traditions of his great predecessors, Glazunov combined them to create a unique style of his own and a totally new type - lyrical and epic symphony. According to Boris Asafiev, "being a colossus of pre-revolutionary symphony," he rose "to the peaks of symphonic creation with his music embracing all that had been achieved by his precursors."
Epic grandeur is one of the most characteristic features of the composer's work. The images of Glazunov's symphonies recall the Russian epic heroes. These images find their most complete personification in the finales of his symphonies. The composer's lyrical compositions, deliberate and flowing, are not less typical. Glazunov is restrained when expressing his feelings. While avoiding any strikingly deep emotions in his music, he always stays within moderate limits. His sublime and monumental symphonic canvases unfold slowly amazing us with the clarity of their musical language and perfect style, and a courageous and life-asserting nature of the music.
Glazunov's First Symphony (1881) became a most important phase of his career. The composer dedicated it to his great teacher Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. This festive and optimistic music was already marked with Glazunov's specific features which later became characteristic for all of his symphonic works. Primarily, it is scherzo, a jolly genre scene full of popular humour. The slow part is what Glazunov's lyricism is about - poetic and warm yet reserved. After all, it is the finale of the symphony - a festive scene of folks' natural merriment.
The symphony was first performed on 29th March, 1882 at a concert of the Gratuitous Music School and conducted by Glazunov's mentor Mily Balakirev. Rimsky-Korsakov called the symphony a "truly grand occasion." To the audience's great astonishment, their applause called into the stage none other than an embarrassed youngster in a school uniform - the composer was only 16 years old. "Young in its inspiration, but mature in its technique and form, the symphony was a great success," Rimsky-Korsakov wrote afterwards.
From that time on Glazunov was a generally recognized composer. Along with his teachers Balakirev and Rimsky-Korsakov, his further work was encouraged by composers Alexander Borodin, Anatoly Lyadov, Tsesar Kui, and an influential music critic Vladimir Stasov. At that premiere Glazunov had a meeting that so much influenced the composer's career and played a tremendous role in the history of the Russian music as a whole - Glazunov met Mitrofan Belyayev, a rich timber merchant and a big lover of music. Belyayev was delighted with the young composer's talent, and all his further undertakings as a patron were linked with the work of the composer who was so much to his liking. More than 30 years of history of the famous "Russian Symphony Concerts" dated from the concert that Belyayev organized and titled "Rehearsal of Glazunov's Compositions" (1884). Those annual concerts included several programmes of Russian composer's works and a mandatory new orchestral composition by Glazunov. Belyayev also had a deal with Glazunov for a sole right to publish his works and founded a publishing house M.P. Belyayev in Leipzig that also published the works of many other Russian composers.
The Russian Symphony Concerts, publishing house and annual prizes for the composers established by Belyayev united a large group of musicians around him. The musical gatherings, the so-called Fridays, in Belyayev's house turned to be among the centres of St. Peterburg's music life. That society was dubbed "Belyayev's circle," and Glazunov was one of its key figures.
Shortly afterwards the First Symphony was performed in Europe. It was included in the programme of the Weimar Festival where Glazunov and Belyayev set off to attend its performance. That was where Glazunov met Franz Liszt. Later Glazunov was a frequent visitor to Liszt's house and played his music for the host. After Liszt's death, Glazunov dedicated his Second Symphony (1886) to his memory. Borodin's influence was the most evident in it, especially its extreme parts. This music epic is filled with the spirit of ancient heroes and popular tales, while its slow portion channels Balakirev's images.
The Third Symphony was composed in 1890 and dedicated to Tchaikovsky. It was especially significant in the evolution of Glazunov's music style. Glazunov met the great composer when he was quite young, and they preserved their amicable relationship until Tchaikovsky's last days. Thanks to their contact, Glazunov directed his interests towards exploration of the world of human emotions, and so his music gained dramatic qualities and pompous excitement. Glazunov went deeper into a lyrical sphere creating widely breathing melodies.
At the turn of the century, Glazunov composed some of his best works. His latter symphonies, from the Fourth to the Eighth, his last, are among them. None of them sounds like the other, and each of them is perfect in its kind.
The Fourth Symphony (1893) is imbued with a lyrical and light mood. Russian and Oriental colours interweave in its music in a bizarre manner; the plastique of dance rhythms is gracefully delivered. This was a symphony in which the lyrical and epic nature of Glazunov's music finally took shape. Symphonies Nos. 5 and 6 belong to the brightest and best known pieces of Glazunov's symphonism. His heroic Fifth Symphony (1895) expressed the composer's optimistic world outlook in the most complete way. His Sixth Symphony (1896) takes a special place among the composer's symphonic works. Its first part is a rare example of Glazunov's dramatically agitated music. However, as the symphony evolves, the music's temper becomes lighter and achieves its joyful luster in a festal finale. The Seventh Symphony (1902) could be called bucolic because of wide use of folk and genre material. The Eighth Symphony (1906) is the most monumental of all Glazunov's works. Being filled with deeply sorrowful feelings, it was the composer's response to the events of the Russian Revolution of 1905-1906. Its second part Mesto (sad) makes an unforgettable impression. As Stasov put it, this is a "tragic astonishing scene, deeply tremendous…"
At the onset of the 20th century, the composer's social and musical activities were particularly extensive. In a period of 1905 to 1929, Glazunov headed the St. Petersburg, Petrograd, and later Leningrad Conservatory. After Belyayev's death, all his initiative were still around - the publishing house, symphony concerts, prizes - the Belyayev society was taking care of all that, with the gatherings taking place in Glazunov's house. Along with Rimsky-Korsakov and Lyadov, he was at the head of St. Petersburg's music life. With Rimsky-Korsakov's soon passing and Lyadov's gradual withdrawal from the business, Glazunov remained the most reputable musician of the St. Petersburg school.
By 1909, Glazunov wrote the first part (clavier) of his new symphony. However, it was never finished although the composer lied for thirty more years after he composed his Eighth Symphony. Glazunov's historic mission as a symphonist who concluded the age of classical Russian symphony had been accomplished.
Gennady Nikolayevich Rozhdestvensky (born 1931) is one of the outstanding conductors of the 20th century, and also a pianist, composer, researcher.
He graduated the Moscow State Conservatory in 1954. He was a student of Nikolai Anosov (conducting) and Lev Oborin (piano). He conducted some of the eminent Russian and foreign orchestras: 1965-1970 - chief conductor of the Bolshoi Theatre; 1961-1974 - artistic director and chief conductor of the Moscow Radio Symphony Orchestra; 1974-1977 - artistic director of the Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra; 1978-1981 - chief conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra; 1981-1982 - chief conductor of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra; 1974-1985 - conductor of the Moscow Music Chamber Theatre; 1982-1992 - conductor of the USSR Ministry of Culture Symphony Orchestra. Professor, the People's Artist of the USSR (1976), a laureate of numerous Russian and foreign awards.
Rozhdestvensky's repertoire is enormous. He has performed and recorded all the symphonies by Haydn, Beethoven, Brahms, Tchaikovsky and many other composers. He has conducted a multitude of the world's premieres both in Russia and overseas. ( Melodiya )
