Glazunov's Organ Works which include intricate fugues and double fugues show that during his lifetime he was the only important Russian composer to write for the organ. His numerous works combine things which are original and genuinely Russian with a feeling for different aspects of life ranging from Slav melancholy to irresistible joie de vivre and the most sophisticated features of European m…
Pathétique-Peter Tchaikovsky (1840-1893) composed the 6th Symphony between February and August 1893. The first performance in St Petersburg on 16 October 1893 at the First Symphony Concert of the Russian Musical Society was conducted by the composer. Tchaikovsky subsequently added the title Pathétique to the work. The first performance of the 6th Symphony in Moscow on 4 December 1893 after the de…
One of Tcherepnin?s favourite instruments was the cello for which he wrote about ten works (for example the Georgian Rhapsody other works for violoncello and orchestra and several ensemble and solo pieces). He worked together with cellists such as Paul Grümmer Paul Tortelier Pierre Fournier and Gregor Piatigorsky and for this reason his cello works seem to be especially well suited to the …
Ballett (Les Sylphides)-In 1883 Glazunov orchestrated a number of piano works by Chopin and called the suite Chopiniana (Les Sylphides). The music inspired the young choreograph Mikhail Fokin who later achieved international fame to devise the ballet Chopiniana in which he invented a plot for each of the five pieces Glazunov had orchestrated. The ballet was first performed in St Petersburg in 1…
Glazunov's Symphony no. 8 the last the composer completed is a majestic achievement whose combination of talent imagination and contrapuntal mastery was destined to remain unsurpassed. The Dutch musicologist Alex van Amerongen was of the opinion that the symphony was the most striking and monumental work of a whole generation. Furthermore he believed that &ldquo this piece - and not the music …
The Violin Concerto op. 82 is one of Glazunov?s best-known works. Since the first performance in 1905 conducted by the composer when Leopold Auer was the soloist virtually all the great violinists have had it in their repertories. The structure of the work was fairly unconventional for its time. The lyrical and romantic first movement is followed without a break (attacca) by the striking and vir…
für 2 Violinen Viola und Violoncello-I would like to take this opportunity to express my sincerest gratitude to Eamonn Quinn Artistic Director of Louth Contemporary Music Society in Ireland for his deep empathy appreciation and great interest in my music and performance activity. I was repeatedly asked by Eamonn Quinn if I would consider writing a new string quartet for the 'Kronos Quartet' as…
Sinfonische Dichtung nach einem russischen Volksmärchen von A. Afanassjew-... Stealing out on another of her jaunts Baba Yaga the forest witch utters a wonted whistle to bring mortar prestle and broomstick scurrying to the scene. Through the forest she glides seated in the mortar using the prestle to drive her swiftly on her way the broom to smoothen all traces left behind by her unusual con…
Ballett in einem Akt und vier Bildern von Marius Petipa-Marius Petipa created the ballet The Seasons (1899) on the basis of a symphonic work by Alexander Glazunov. The piece does not really have a plot and its four tableaux merely consist of choreographed representations of winter spring summer and autumn.
Legende für Orchester-Way up in the rocky mountains Kikimora lives with her guardian the Wizard. Strange fairy tales are related to her from morning till eve by the Wizard's wise old cat. At night she es rocked gently to sleep in a crystal cradle until early sunrise. Kikimora becomes grown up at the age of seven. Her body swart and slender measures no longer than a wisp of straw her head no lar…
22 Stücke in 7 Zyklen für Violine und Klavier-Anniversary edition on the occasion of the 75th birthday of Valentin Silvestrov: 'This work could well be called (in analogy to Bach's 'Art of the Fugue') 'Art of the Melody' if there were a didactic mission. But here is no'art' whatsoever only melodies – flashing moments captured frozen in time songs without words – words which may be …
Alexander Glasunov's famous Saxophone Quartet Op. 109 (1932) is one of his last works and at the same time one of the earliest quartets for this instrumentation at all. The work is virtually a little history of music ? 'delivered subsequently' for this younger instrument group: The first movement is characterized by wide melodic arcs reminiscent of Dvorák Wagner and Brahms the second movement …
The sultan Shakriar convinced of the falshood and inconstancy of all women had sworn an oath to put to death each of his wives after the first night. However the sultana Scheherazade saved her life by arousing his interest in the tales which she told him during 1001 nights. Driven by curiosity the sultan postponed her execution from day to day and at last abandoned his sanguinary design. Scheher…
Glazunov began to compose this work at the age of fifteen. His diary records: ?I composed and orchestrated the slow movement of Symphony no. 1 (?Andante?) in the summer of 1881 . . . The score of the symphony was completed by the autumn.? It was first performed in St Petersburg on 29 March 1882. Although the composer was still a schoolboy his symphony was the work of ?fully-fledged musician with …
