Glazunov, Alexander

Preface

Glazunov, Alexander – Une Fete slave Op. 26a, symphonic sketch from the ‚Slav Quartet‘

(b. St. Petersburg, 10 August 1865 – dt. Neuilly-sur-Seine, 21 March 1936)

Symphonic sketch from the “Slav Quartet”

Preface
A reworking of the final movement of Op. 26 (String Quartet No. 3 in G major), subtitled the ‘Slavic Quartet’ due to its incorporation of a ‘Slavic,’ or non-European folk-music oriented, compositional style with resonant low fifths, ‘Russian’ modalism, and buoyant dance rhythms, Alexander Glazunov’s Op. 26a (Une Fete slave) is a legacy piece. Not only did he synthesize the previously dominating stream of ‘Russianness’ promoted by the compositional collective known as the ‘Balakirev Circle’ with the more academically-aligned counter named the ‘Belyaev Circle,’ but he also formalized the domestic use of a conservatory writing style. Despite his name which was attached to uncomplimentary pedanticism by both colleagues (Rimsky-Korsakov and Taneyev) and musicologist critics (Boris Asafiev) alike, Glazunov was far more than meets the eyes and ears. The symphonic orchestration of Op. 26’s last movement, Slavic Feast, was first composed in 1888 and published in 1890, the former being the same year Glazunov made his public debut as a conductor of his Op. 16 (Symphony No. 2 in F♯ minor) at the 1888 Paris World’s Fair in the famous ‘Palais du Trocadéro.’ It was there where legendary organ composer Charles Widor gave the premiere of his Op. 42, No. 2 (Symphony for Organ No. 6)

However, the period is better known for the year prior, 1887, due to Glazunov’s disastrous (some say drunken) conducting of Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Op. 13 (Symphony No. 1 in D minor). It was never performed again until 1945 as a result of intense musicological reconstruction. Nevertheless, being a composer was a difficult task within the world of late-Tsarist Russia, where Alexander II’s totalistic reforms, which formally ended serfdom in 1861, were met with the rising hand of radical populism. The Tsar was assassinated in 1881, and the many imperial conflicts at the time lead to redrawing of international alliances. Imperial Russian life was greatly changing, one could say modernizing with the growing shift away from Romantic nationalism and more towards a fuller incorporation of Western cosmopolitanism, and for Glazunov the mid-1880s onwards proved a time of equally monumental change1. …

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