Alexander Borodin

Great Composers Datebook: November 12

 

Alexander Borodin: Beyond Love for Chemistry  

Brief biography of Russian composer Alexander Borodin, a successful chemical scientist by profession, with equal passion for classical music.One of 'The Five', a group of nationalist Russian composers.

 

Alexander Borodin is famous for his opera Prince Igor which he left unfinished and completed by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and Aleksander Glazunov, first performed in St. Petersburg in 1890.  He is a member of 'The Five' or 'The Mighty Handful'  group of nationalist Russian composers including  Mily Balakirev (leader), Alexander Borodin, Cesar Cui, Modest Mussorgsky and Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov. 

Alexander Porfiryevich Borodin, Russian composer and chemistry scientist by profession, was born in St. Petersburg on November 12, 1833, the illegitimate son of a prince.  Having been illegitimate, his father, Prince Gedeanov, registered Alexander (or Aleksandr) as the son of one his serfs.  His mother later married a retired army doctor.  

As a youth, Borodin developed parallel interests in music and chemistry, teaching himself cello at the same time qualifying in medical chemistry. His music life was apparently subordinated to his research and his activities as a lecturer at the Medico-Surgical Academy in St. Petersburg.  At age 23, he received his doctorate in chemistry.

In 1862, while professor of chemistry at the Academy of Medicine, he began to take lessons from Mily Balakirev, his music mentor.  The following year he  married Ekaterina Protopopova, a pianist.  He began working on his only opera Prince Igor in 1869.  Prince Igor includes ‘Polovstian Dances’ and ‘Maidens’ Dance.’ He worked on it at irregular intervals. The familiar melody of 'Stranger in Paradise' was originally from a segment of the Prince Igor opera called "Polovtsian (or Polovetsian) Dances, Gliding Dance of the Maidens".

From 1872, he lectured on chemistry at the School of Medicine for Women until his death and wrote important treatises on his subject. He worked for nearly 20 years on the opera until his death in 1887.  

To this day, the theatre audience and Borodin admirers recognize a theme from his ‘Polovtsian Dances’ as “Stranger in Paradise” from a popular Broadway musical hit  Kismet during the early 1950s for which Robert Wright and George Forrest converted some of his melodies.  Kismet also contains the popular love song love song “This is My Beloved” which was based on Borodin's String Quartet No. 2 in D major. The song earned him a Tony Award in 1954, posthumously, 67 years after his death. "And This Is My Beloved" is a the nocturne from the third movement of Borodin's String Quartet in D. The same melody had earlier (1946) been used for a song credited to William Engvick, Bert Reisfeld and Alec Wilder entitled "Spring Magic," which was recorded by Charlie Spivak and his Orchestra.

Listening Pleasure: 

Alexander Borodin Quartet play Borodin String Quartet no. 2 - video 1973. YouTube, uploaded by ADGO. Accessed November 12, 2021. 

Alexander Borodin: In the Steppes of Central Asia. YouTube, uploaded by Main Line Symphony Orchestra. Accessed November 12, 2021. 

Alexander Borodin - Prince Igor: Polovtsian Dances, conducted by Andrzej Kucybała. YouTube, uploaded by Akademia Filmu i Telewizji. Accessed November 12, 2021.

Aleksander Borodin - Symphony No. 2 in B minor. YouTube, uploaded by Philharmonic of Republic of North Macedonia. Conducted by Viktor Mitrevski. Accessed November 12, 2022.  

Borodin's String Quartet No. 2 in D major. YouTube, uploaded by HarpsichordM. Accessed November 12, 2022. 

Kirov Opera: Alexander Borodin - Prince Igor / Князь Игорь (Part 1). YouTube, uploaded by EuroArtsChannel. Accessed November 12, 2021.

Video Credit: 

Borodin's String Quartet No. 2 in D major. YouTube, uploaded by Brooklyn Classical. Accessed November 12, 2022.

 

Borodin work includes: 

Symphony No. 1 (1867)

Symphony No. 2 (1876)

String Quartet No. 1 (1879) 

In the Steppes of Central Asia for orchestra (1880)

String Quartet No. 2 (1881)

Symphony No. 3 (1886)  Completed by Glazunov

Opera, Prince Igor, including 'Polovtsian Dances' and 'Maidens' Dance' (Completed by Rimsky-Korsakov and Glazunov)

Little Suitefor piano

Songs

Chamber music, all using traditional Russian themes.

Such a remarkable man to become a famous composer, at the same time a chemistry scientist by profession. Overworked, Borodin died from a heart attack  at St Petersburg  27 February, 1887.  One wonders what he might have achieved had he devoted all his time to composition or to science.

 

(Note: I wrote this article for Suite101.com, June 10, 2007. / Tel) 

 

Image credit: 

Alexander Borodin.  Public Domain. 

 

Resources:

1. Classical Music, The Great Composers and their Masterworks by John Stanley (1994)

2. The Grove concise Dictionary of Music, edited by Stanley Sadie (1994)

 

(c) November 11, 2009. Updated November 11, 2021. Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved.

Dmitri Shostakovich

Classical Music / Composers Datebook: September 25 

 

Brief biography of Russian composer and pianist Dmitri Shostakovich, his life and works. One of the 20^thcentury's greatest symphonists. Famous for Symphony No. 5, considered his finest composition.

Early Years

Dmitry or Dimitri (Dmitriyevich) Shostakovich was born in St. Petersburg on September 25, 1906. His parents were both intellectuals and talented musicians. He initially studied with his mother, a professional pianist. He trained at St. Petersburg Conservatory when he was 10 years old and became an outstanding pianist. Three years later, he studied at the Petrograd Conservatory with Alexander Glazunov. At age 19, his Symphony no.1 was his graduation piece, which brought him early international attention. His creative development was determined more by events at home.

Family

Shostakovich married a scientist, Nina Varzara, and they had two children: Maxim became a conductor and pianist, and Galya (Galina), a biologist. He wrote many pedagogical works for his children who were also his piano students. 

Below: Schostakowitsch: 7. Sinfonie (»Leningrader«) ∙ hr-Sinfonieorchester ∙ Marin Alsop, Conductor. Youutube, uploaded by Frankfurt Radio Symphony. Accessed September 25, 2018.

Anton Rubinstein

Classical Composers Datebook: November 28


Russian composer, virtuoso pianist, and founder of St Petersburg Conservatory and Russian Musical Society
 

Anton Rubinstein (Gigor’yevich) (born Vikhvatinets, 28 November 1829 - died Peterhof, 20 November 1894), was a Russian pianist, composer and teacher. His piano playing is often compared to Liszt, was a prolific Russian composer, a child  virtuoso and acclaimed as one of the greatest 19th century pianists. He enjoyed  enormous international success. Tchaikovsky was among his pupils. One of his popular compositions is the "Album de Peterhof, Op.75" that forms a beautiful musical picture of memories. Peterhof was his favorite summer retreat with his family. He died there 8 days before his birthday anniversary. Rubinstein had two sons and a daughter by his wife Vera Tschekouanoff.

The video below is the most famous music of Rubinstein in the orchestral version. (Paintings by Pierre Auguste Renoir.) Sorry, I don't have info who interpreted the music.




Anton Rubinstein (1829-1894), Russian composer, pianist and teacher, was born in Vikhyatinets, on November 28, 1829, of Slavic-Jewish-German descent. Anton’s music education started with his mother who gave him piano lessons. Nikolay Rubinstein, a known pianist and teacher, is his younger brother. At the age of five, his family moved to Moscow where his father set up a pencil factory. At the age of ten, he had his debut in Moscow then went on European concert tour, including London, but the tour barely paid for itself.

Stravinsky and Gounod

Classical Music Composers Datebook: June 17

Charles Gounod and Igor Stravinsky were both born same day.

Charles Gounod (17 June 1818 - 18 October 1893), born in Paris, was a French composer, organist and conductor.  His operas - best known is Faust -  combine graceful melody and elegant harmonization.  Gounod's Meditation on Bach's Prelude became successful and most popular with his "Gounod's Ave Maria" we often refer to as "Bach/Gounod Ave Maria."  The piece was published 1853 under the name "Méditation sur le Premier Prélude de Piano de S. Bach". The original composition by Bach dates 1722. French romantic composer Charles Gounod layered his melody on a slightly changed version of the Prelude No.1 in C Major, from Bach's 'Prelude No. 1 in C Major, BWV 846', Book I of The Well-Tempered Clavier. P

I'm familiar with few other "Ave Maria" creations and I have to admit that my two all-time favourites are "Ave Maria" by Franz Schubert and the one below by Bach/Gounod. Below, a then 14 year-old girl Elena sang Gounod/Bach's "Ave Maria."  Elena sang 

Irving Berlin

Composer/Songwriter Datebook: May 11

Composer Famous for "White Christmas"

Irving Berlin (May 11, 1888 – September 22, 1989), was born on Tyumen Russian Empire and migrated to the United States. He was a composer and lyricist of Jewish heritage. Along with Cole Porter and Richard Rodgers, he is widely considered one of the greatest American songwriters.

His first hit song, "Alexander's Ragtime Band", became famous worldwide.  Over the years he was known for writing music and lyrics in the American vernacular which was simple and direct that reached the hearts not only of ordinary Americans but simple people all over the world.

Tchaikovsky and Brahms Share the Same Birthday

Composers Datebook: May 7

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and Johannes Brahms

Johannes Brahms, German Romantic composer, pianist and conductor, was born May 7, 1833. He is known for his great symphonies. Brahms is considered one of the greatest composers of symphonic music and songs. Initially intended by his parents for a career in the orchestra, he was most brilliant on the piano that eventually his parents decided to pursue his piano at the age of 11. Of significance, was his meeting with the Schumanns, Robert and Clara, and a close friendship developed. He is most famous for his vocal work, A German Requiem, and of course, as a child, no one can miss his Brahms' Lullaby.

Born into a Lutheran family, Brahms spent much of his life in Vienna. His reputation and status as a composer are such that he is sometimes grouped with JS Bach and Beethoven as one of the "Three Bs" of music, a comment originally made by the 19th century conductor Hans von Bülow.

Brahms composed for symphony orchestra, chamber ensembles, piano, organ, and voice and chorus. A virtuoso pianist, he premiered many of his own works. He worked with leading performers of his time, including the pianist Clara Schumann and the violinist Joseph Joachim. An uncompromising perfectionist, Brahms destroyed some of his works and left others unpublished.

Brahms has been considered, by his contemporaries and by later writers, as both a traditionalist and an innovator. His music is firmly rooted in the structures and compositional techniques of the Classical masters. While many contemporaries found his music too academic, his contribution and craftsmanship have been admired by subsequent prominent composers as diverse as Arnold Schoenberg and Edward Elgar. The diligent, highly constructed nature of his works was an  inspiration for a generation of composers. Embedded within his meticulous structures, however, are deeply romantic motifs. (Brahms: String Sextet, Op.18 - Janine Jansen & Friends - International Chamber Music Festival HD. Uploaded by AVROTROS Klassiek. Brahms powerful German Requiem / Ein deutsches Requiem, superbly performed by both orchestra and choir. Frankfurt Radio Symphony, David Zinman conducting. Brahms Symphony No. 3 F Dur op 90. Leonard Bernstein conducting, Wiener Philharmoniker. Youtube, uploaded by Ahmed Barod. Accessed May 8, 2016. Brahms Piano Trio No.1 in B minor, Op.8. Uploaded by ChamberFest Cleveland. Accessed May 7, 2020.))  

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Russian composer of the Romantic period, regarded as his country's all-time greatest, was born May 7, 1840, seven years after Brahms. Pyotr (or Piotr) Tchaikovsky is famous for his three famous ballet music: The Nutcracker, Swan Lake and Sleeping Beauty. He is also known for his symphonies, piano concerti, chamber and vocal music. Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 is one of the the most popular concertos ever written and his Symphony No. 6, the ‘Pathétique’, is one of the great symphonic masterpieces of all time. He turned to literary and dramatic sources, including Shakespeare, for a number of orchestral compositions. Tchaikovsky’s music combines tuneful melodies, impressive harmonies and colourful orchestrations. As a young man, he became involved with the nationalist movement, the Mighty Handful or "The Five" when he met Mily Balakirev, one of its founders. Pyotr Tchaikovsky, known for his beautiful melody with such poignant and romantic expression was the first Russian composer to establish a reputation with Western audiences.

Tchaikovsky was the first Russian composer whose music made a lasting impression internationally, bolstered by his appearances as a guest conductor in Europe and the United States. He was honored in 1884 by Tsar Alexander III, and awarded a lifetime pension.

Although musically precocious, Tchaikovsky was educated for a career as a civil servant. At the time there was scant opportunity for a musical career in Russia. When an opportunity arose, he entered the nascent Saint Petersburg Conservatory, from which he graduated in 1865. The formal Western-oriented teaching he received there set him apart from composers of the contemporary nationalist movement embodied by the Russian composers of 'The Five' led my Mily Balakirev, with whom his professional relationship was mixed. Tchaikovsky's training set him on a path to reconcile what he learned with the native musical practices was exposed from childhood. From this reconciliation he forged a personal Russian style—a task that did not prove easy.

On his creativity, Pyotr Tchaikovsky displayed a wide stylistic and emotional range, from light salon works to grand symphonies. Some of his works, such as the Variations on a Rococo Theme, employ a "Classical" form reminiscent of 18th-century composers most especially that of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, his musical god, and evidently his favourite composer. Other compositions, such as his Little Russian symphony and his opera Vakula the Smith, flirt with musical practices more akin to those of the Russian " Mighty Five", especially in their use of folk song. Other works, such as Tchaikovsky's last three symphonies, employ a personal musical idiom that facilitated intense emotional expression. (Here are two of my all-time favourite symphonies: (1) Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 5 - Russian State Symphony Orchestra/Petrenko (2015). State Symphony Orchestra of the Russian Federation 'Evgeny Svetlanov' VASILY PETRENKO, conductor. Recording: Tchaikovsky Concert Hall, Moscow, 21 December 2015. (2) "Pathetique" Symphony No. 6, with Barenboim conducting Berliner Philharmoniker. YouTube, Accessed May 7, 2017. Tchaikovsky - Piano Trio in A minor, Op. 50 (Richter, Kagan, Gutman). Uploaded by Max Lima. Accessed May 7, 2020.)

Alexander Scriabin

Classical Music/Composers Datebook: January 6

Alexander Scriabin: Russian composer and pianist

Alexander Nikolayevich Scriabin was born in Moscow on January 6, 1872, into an aristocratic family.  When he was only a year old, his mother, a concert pianist, died of tubercolosis. Scriabin's father left for Turkey, leaving the young infant with his doting grandmother and great aunt. He studied the piano from an early age, taking lessons with famed strict disciplinarian teacher Nikolay Zverev, who also taught Sergei Rachmaninov and other prodigies at the same time.

Early Life of Scriabin

He studied the piano from an early age, taking lessons with famed strict disciplinarian teacher Nikolay Zverev, who also taught Sergei Rachmaninov and other prodigies at the same time.

Rachmaninoff and Busoni

Classical Music Composer Datebook:  April 1

Same-birthday Composers: Sergey Rachmaninoff and Ferruccio Busoni

Sergei Vasilievich Rachmaninoff (1873-1943)
Russian composer and piano virtuoso Sergei (Sergey) Rachmaninoff (Rachmaninov) was born on April 1, 1873 (Old Style: March 20, 1873). He was a conductor of the late Romantic period and whose works are among the most popular in the Romantic repertoire.  Born into a musical family, Rachmaninoff took up the piano at age four. He graduated from the Moscow Conservatory in 1892 although he already composed several piano and orchestral pieces. He entered a four-year depression and composed little until successful therapy allowed him to complete his famous Piano Concerto No. 2 in 1901. For the next sixteen years, Rachmaninoff conducted at the Bolshoi Theatre, relocated to Dresden, Germany, and toured the United States for the first time. Here's a link to the profoundly heartwarming Piano Concerto No. 3 interpreted by Martha Argerich from an earlier post. 

Composer Ferruccio Busoni (1866-1924)
Italian composer and also a piano virtuoso in his time, Ferrucio Busoni was born on April 1, 1866. Busoni's Operas include:  Arlecchino (Harlequin or The windows), 1914-1916, Doktor Faust, 1916-1924 (Completed by Jarnach after Busoni's death) and Turandot, 1917.  Below is a performance of  Busoni's Doktor Faust, with Philippe Jordan, conducting the Chorus and Orchestra of the Zurich Opera House. Doktor Faust – Thomas Hampson. Mephistopheles – Gregory Kunde.





Resource:

Sadie, Stanley, Ed.  The Grove Concise Dictionary of Music, New Updated Edition.  London: Macmillan, 1994.


(c) 2014.  Tel Asiado.  Inspired Pen Web.  All rights reserved 

Modest Mussorgsky

Classical Music / Composer's Datebook: March 21

Russian composer Modest Mussorgsky famous for opera Boris Godunov and orchestral Pictures at an Exhibition.

Mussorgsky was a member of the Russian "The Mighty Handful" or "The Five" group of composers.

Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky (21 March 1839 – 28 March 1881), was a Russian composer, an innovator of Russian music in the romantic period. Mussorgsky was known to achieve a uniquely Russian musical identity, often in a deliberate defiance of the established conventions of Western music of the time.

His sentiments were nationalistic mainly inspired by Russian history and Russian folklore. Aside from Boris Godunov and the piano suite Pictures at an Exhibition, his output include the orchestral tone poem Night on the Bald Mountain, and mainly works known in versions revised or completed by other composers, like Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Ravel, and Shostakovich.




Many of Mussorgsky's most important compositions have recently come into their own original forms, and some of these original scores are available.

Video Credit:

Mussorgsky: Boris Godunov, with Abbado, etal. Youtube, uploaded by Kis Martus. Accessed October 27, 2017.  (Salzburg, 1998 Berliner Philharmoniker Musikalische Leitung: Claudio Abbado Inszenierung: Herbert Wernicke Boris - Anatoli Kotscherga Fjodor - Ruxanda Donose Schuiski - Philip Langridge Pimen - Alexander Morosow Dimitri - Vladimir Galouzine Marina - Marjana Lipovsek Rangoni - Sergei Leiferkus)


Resource:

Sadie, Stanley, Ed.  The Grove Dictionary of Music, New Updated Edition.  London: Macmillan Publishers, 1994. 



(c) 2014. Updated March 21, 2020. Tel. Inspired Pen Web.  All rights reserved.

Mussorgsky Pictures at an Exhibition

Pictures at an Exhibition by Russian composer Mussorgsky

"Pictures from an Exhibition" – A Remembrance of Viktor Hartmann  is a suite in 10 movements composed for piano by Russian composer Modest Mussorgsky in 1874. It is considered his best and most famous piano composition.  It is known for its various orchestrations and arrangements by other composers, the most famous of which is Maurice Ravel's most performed and recorded arrangement.

Pictures at an Exhibition: Promenade (part 1)

Valery Gergiev with The Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra play "Pictures at an Exhibition" Promenade (part 1) by Modest Mussorgsky.

Balakirev Symphonic Poem Tamara

Classical Music / Symphonic Poem 

Orchestral Symphony No. 2 Tamara or Thamar is a symphonic poem composed by Russian composer Mily Balakirev.

Mily Balakirev conducts the first performance of his symphonic poem Tamara in St Petersburg, on March 19, 1883. One of his best known works, Tamara is based on a ballad by the poet Mikhail Lermontov, who was inspired by an ancient local legend while exiled to the Caucasus.

Initially, he saw the work as a possible symbol of the recent political unification of the Caucasus under Russian rule. The poetic style and romantic language of the poem are important to an understanding of the plot, which describes a beautiful but evil princess (Tamara) whose songs lure travelers to her enchanted castle in the Caucasus by the river Terek. After a night of passion, the princess murders the traveler, whose body is borne away by the river.




Balakirev began work on Tamara in 1867. In the mid-1870s, he had a four-year battle with depression. Fortunately, his friends confiscated his work sketches fearing what he might do to them. In 1876, his friends helped him rekindle his interest in music by returning the score to him and asking him to resume composition. Three years later, he performed Tamara on piano to an enthusiastic audience of friends. In March 1883, Tamara was premiered with the composer conducting, and the 15-year odyssey, of which perhaps only three years total were spent intensively working on the score, was completed.

The slow (and soft) introduction and conclusion to the piece is a characteristic of Balakirev's orchestral works. It opens with ripples in the strings and low brass, representing the river, which establish the impressively pervasive feeling of foreboding, the key is the ominous B minor. Lyrically supple woodwind melodies abound in the work, and the first few notes of what will later be identified as Tamara's love song are heard from the English horn. After a few more notes of the love song, the rippling returns.

The main work of the score is taken up with the two love themes of Tamara. Balakirev develops these melodies from seductive lyricism to driving passion to the murderous climax, after which the original form and the river music returns.

 Balakirev dedicated Tamara to Franz Liszt, who is considered originator of the tone poem. Despite remaining distinctively Russian in orchestral scope, Tamara, in its form and language, embraces Oriental flavor. In 1912, Diaghilev and Fokine produced a ballet to Balakirev's Tamara.


Resource: 

Mily Balakirev, Tamara, Symphonic Poem.  www.allmusic.com.  Accessed March 19, 2009. 


Video Credit:

Mily Balakirev - Tamara, symphonic poem (1867-82).  Youtube, uploaded by KuhlauDelfing2.
Orchestra: The State Academic Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Evgeny Svetlanov.  Accessed March 19, 2009
Mily Balakirev.  en.wikpedia.org.  Accessed March 19, 2009


(c) March 2009. Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved.

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov

Classical Music / Composers Datebook: March 18

 

Brief biography of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, master in orchestration with strong Russian flavour and colour. He was a member of 'The Five' 19^th-century Russian nationalist composers with a gift for lively and colorful orchestration, and known for fairy tale subjects.

 

 

Nikolai (Nikolay) Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov, Russian composer and conductor, was born in Tikhvin on March 18, 1844. He was a Russian nationalist and the youngest member of 'The Five' or 'the Mighty Handful,' a group of 19th-century Russian composers organized by Mily Balakirev.  

   

Early Years

Rimsky-Korsakov was born into an aristocratic family and had conventional music education. His initial ambition was to be a sailor, a naval officer. In 1856, he entered the Corps of Naval Cadets in St. Petersburg but while at sea he had pianoforte lessons, he even composed a symphony. He also attended opera and concerts. Greatly influenced by Balakirev and deeply impressed by Glinka’s nationalist works, he showed great promise in his musical ability especially in orchestration. 

Career beginnings

At 27, the professorship of composition at the St. Petersburg Conservatoire was offered to him. He accepted the position aware that he was unqualified. Secretly, he began his self-imposed study especially in harmony and counterpoint. About this time, he married a fellow musician, Nadezhda Purgold, also a composer but superior to him.

Music output

It was in 1882 that his work, in particular, an opera The Snow Maiden that showed a new, personal clever voice with some fantasy blended with comedy. The next few years nothing much happened in terms of his musical output. However, after six years, he produced the successful Spanish Capriccio, encored at its first presentation.  With its success, this was followed by Russian Easter Festival Overture and the symphonic suite Scheherazade, an exotic music derived from the famous classic tale Thousand and One Night.  His mastery of orchestration is demonstrated in all three compositions.

 

Featured video:Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade op.35, with Leif Segerstam conducting Sinfónica de Galicia.  Youtube, accessed March 18, 2024. 

Alexander Glazunov

Classical Music / Composer's Datebook: August 10

 

Brief biograpahy of Alexander Glazunov, Russian composer of the late Romantic period. He completed the third act of Borodin's Prince Igor, among others, after the composer's death.

 

Alexander Konstantinovich Glazunov was among the late Russian Romantic composers like Rachmaninoff. For almost three years, he studied privately with Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov at Balakirev's suggestion.  A son of a successful publisher, Russian composer Alexander Glazunov was born on August 10, 1865, in St. Petersburg. He mother was a good amateur pianist who had studied with Mily Balakirev, a leader of a group of Russian composers known as "The Mighty Handful" or "The Five."   

 

Young Glazunov

When he was 16 years old, Glazunov showed his talent when he wrote his first symphony which was conducted by Mily Balakirev. He became a protege of the latter. At the opening of his performance, Glazunov was befriended by a wealthy patron, a timber merchant Mitrofan Belayev, who started a publishing house to support young Russian hopefuls. From the 1880s, he travelled widely in Paris and London, conducting his own works. In Weimar, he also met with Franz Liszt, who had some influence in his music. 

 

Career

In 1899, he was appointed professor at the St. Petersburg Conservatory, and after six years, he was appointed as director there until leaving the Soviet Union in 1928, when he went to live in Paris but before he did, he first went to Vienna, then toured Europe and the US.  Dmitry Shostakovich was one of his prominent students in St Petersburg.  

Glazunov - The Seasons. Edo de Waart conducts the Minnesota Orchestra. YouTube, uploaded by winkle522000. Accessed August 10, 2023.  

 

Like some of his contemporaries, Glazunov also suffered hardships during the Russian Revolution and settled in other places, of which he did, in Paris.

A notable trivia, it has been said that Glazunov ruined the premiere of Rachmaninoff’s First Symphony by conducting while drunk. 

 

Glazunov's Major works

1881 Symphony No.1 (first performed and conducted by Balakirev. Glazunov was 16 years old)

1882 String Quarter in D major

1883 Serenader No.1

1884 Serenade No.2

1885 Stenka Razin, tone poem

1886 Symphony No.2

1889 The Forest, fantasia

1891 Oriental Rhapsody

1892 Symphony No.3

1893 Symphony No.4

1895 Symphony No.5

1896 Symphony No.6

1897 Raymonda, ballet

1901 The Seasons, ballet

1902 Symphony No.7

1904 Violin Concerto

1905 Symphony No.8

1909 Symphony No.9 (left unfinished, first performed 1948)

1911 Piano concerto

1933 Epic Poem

1936 Saxophone Concerto

 

Legacy  of Glazunov

Glazunov has a significant place in the history of Russian music for he reconciled Russianism and Europeanism - by absorbing Rimsky-Korsakov’s orchestral virtuosity, Balakirev’s nationalism,  Tchaikovsky’s lyricism, Borodin’s epic grandeur and Taneyev’s contrapuntal skill. His music  has a distinctive Russian national school of composition, at the same time and absorbed  influences of western Europe. He completed the act three of Alexander Borodin's famous Prince Igor after Borodin's death, collaborated in other works, and made more arrangements.

Alexander Glazunov died in Paris in1936, the same day that Mussorgsky and Johann Sebastian Bach were born, in different centuries.   

 

Image Credit:

Alexander Glazunov (before 1913). Wikipedia Commons / Public Domain

 

Resources: 

Dictionary of Composers and their Music by Eric Gilder (1987)

The Grove Concise Dictionary of Music, edited by Stanley Sadie (1994)

 

 

(c) August 2008. Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved.

Mikhail Glinka

Classical Music / Composers Datebook: June 1

Brief biography of Russian composer Mikhail Glinka. Considered 'Father of Russian Nationalist Classical Music' who influenced the "Mighty Handful" composers. Famous for opera with Russian folk-theme, Ruslan and Lyudmila. Master of Russian symphonic music.

 

Russian composer Mikhail Glinka (1804-1857) is known as the father of Russian nationalist music. He pioneered cultivation of Russian folk music in the opera, instrumental music and song genres. He exerted a deep influence on Balakirev, Rimsky-Korsakov, Musorgsky, Borodin, Cui and Tchaikovsky, as well as on Prokofiev and Stravinsky.

Early Life

Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka was born on June 1, 1804 in Novospasskoye (later renamed Glinka). His family was a wealthy landowning family and was always financially secure, though his health was not. He was sent to school in St Petersburg.

 

Glinka's Young Adult Life

Aged only 24, he was appointed and undersecretary in the communications Council in St Petersburg.

Six years later, he moved to Milan, Italy. Glinka was not a very conscientious student. However, he delighted in the company of musicians, and it was in Milan he realized that Russia, his beloved homeland, had no musical identity of its own and very much tied to western Europe’s culture.

Glinka: Ruslan and Ludmila - Overture (Benjamin Zander, Boston Philharmonic Youth Orchestra).  Youtube, uploaded by Boston Philharmonic. Accessed June 1, 2023.

 

Glinka's influence

Glinka traveled a lot. His interest in exotic places and their folk-music influenced his writings, which in turn became a model for succeeding Russian composers earlier mentioned.   

 

Glinka's Musical Career

He began to write his first opera upon return to St. Petersburg. His first important compositions, a Capriccio for piano duet and an unfinished symphony, were written in Berlin in 1834, when he studied composition briefly with Siegfried Dehn. In this piece he apparently applied variation technique for Russian themes on both pieces. Glinka broke away from the prevailing Italian influence and turned to Russian folk music, his inspiration for the only two operas he wrote in his lifetime: Zhizn’za tsarya (A Life for the Tsar, originally Ivan Susanin) and Ruslan and Lyudmila.

His later works include the instrumental fantasia Kamarinskaya, the Second Spanish Overture and the Fantasy Waltz for orchestra. His innovations and nationalistic musical flavour greatly influenced the other Russian composers after him, for example, Mily Balakirev co-founder and leader of “The Five” or the "Mighty Handful," a group of composers who in like manner brought the spirit of Russian nationalism to music.

Glinka died in Berlin, 15 February 1857. 

 

Mikhail Glinka's Works:

Variations on a Theme of Mozart, for Piano  1822

Symphony in B Flat  1824

Memorial Cantata  1826

String Quartet in F Major 1830

Capriccio for piano duet, 1834

Symphony on Two Russian Themes  1834

Opera, Shisn'za tsarya (A Life for the Tsar) 1836

Incidental Music for the play Knyaz Kholmsky (Prince Kholmsky)  1840

Collection of Songs, Proshchaniye s Petersburgom (A Farewell to St Petersburg)  1840

Opera, Ruslan and Lyudmila (Ruslan and Ludmilla) 1842

Capriccio brillante (First Spanish Overture), Jota Aragonesa  1845

Greeting to the Fatherland, for piano 1847

Overture, Kamarinskaya, Wedding Song, a fantasia for orchestra  1848

Souvenir d'une nuit d'été a Madrid (Second Spanish Overture) 1851

Valse-fantaisie (Fantasy Waltz) for orchestra  1856

 Glinka also composed many pieces for piano and songs. 

 

Photo Credit:

Mikhail Glinka. Wikipedia Commons / Public Domain. Portrait of Mikhail Glinka by Karl Bryullov, 1840

 

Resources:

Mikhail Glinka. en.wikipedia.org. 

Sadie, Stanley. The Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2^nd Edition. London: Macmillan Press Ltd.(2000)

(c) June 2008. Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved. 

Sergei Rachmaninoff

Classical Music / Composer's Datebook: April 1

Rachmaninoff was a superb pianist, a brilliant composer and conductor. His music is 19th century rooted yet adheres to Classical form. His concertos and Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, are among the most popular in piano and orchestra literature.  He was a protégé of Piotr Tchaikovsky.

Sergei (Sergey) Rachmaninoff (also Rachmaninov or Rakhmaninov) was a Russian composer, conductor and pianist. He was born in Semyonovo, 1 April 1873.

Pianist and Composer

Initially, he studied at the St. Petersburg Conservatory in 1882 and later at the Moscow Conservatory in 1885-1892. It was during this time that he showed himself to be an outstanding pianist. In 1891, he wrote his first piano concerto and his well-known Prelude C#. Two years later, he scored success with Aleko, his first opera composition as his graduation work.

Symphony No. 1 written in 1895 was not successful causing him emotional stress.  With the help of a hypnotist Dr. Dahl, he returned to composition. His confidence returned with the huge success of his Piano Concerto No.2 in 1901.  He dedicated this concerto to Dr. Dahl. The following year he married his cousin Natalie Satin. 

Below,  listen and enjoy Rachmaninoff's famous Piano Concerto No. 3 in D Minor, op. 30, in the powerful interpretation and superb performance of 18-year old gold medalist Yunchan Lim: his emotion, his technique. Likewise brilliantly conducted by Marin Alsop, with Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra.  2022 Cliburn Competition. Accessed April 1, 2023.