Glazunov, Alexander

Preface

Alexander Konstantinovich Glazunov – Finnish Fantasy for orchestra, op. 88

Александр Константинович Глазунов – Финсая Фантазия, соч. 88

(10 August 1865, Saint Petersburg, Russia – 21 March 1936, Neuilly-sur-Seine [near Paris], France)

Finnische Fantasie für Orchester
Fantaisie finnoise pour orchestra

Composition
1909
Premiere
Helsingfors (modern Helsinki, now the capitol of Finland), 7 November 1910
First edition
Leipzig, Edition M. P. Belaïeff, 1912, plate 2898
Arrangement for piano, four hands
by Aleksandr Winkler. Leipzig, Edition M. P. Belaïeff, 1912

Orchestration
piccolo, two flutes, three oboes (3rd plays English horn), three clarinets in B-flat (3rd plays bass clarinet), two bassoons, contrabassoon, four horns in F, three trumpets (two in B-flat, one in F), three trombones, two tuba, timpani, percussion (triangle; tamburo [may substitute a modern snare drum], cymbals, bass drum), harp, and strings.

Biography
Alexander Glazunov was a prominent Russian composer who became a professor and later the director of the Saint Petersburg/Petrograd/Leningrad Conservatory (1905-1930), shepherding it through the turbulent times of the Bolshevik Revolution. During his tenure he worked tirelessly to improve the curriculum, raise standards, defend the institute’s autonomy through many political regimes, and establish an opera studio and students’ philharmonic orchestra. His early music was praised by Borodin, Stasov, and the young Stravinsky, but was considered old-fashioned by his best-known student, Dmitri Shostakovich, who attended the Petrograd Conservatory from 1919-1925.

Widely respected as a Romantic composer, Glazunov conducted the last of the Russian Historical Concerts in Paris on 17 May 1907 and received honorary doctoral degrees from both Oxford and Cambridge. There were also cycles of all-Glazunov concerts in Saint Petersburg and Moscow to celebrate his 25th anniversary as a composer. Despite the hardships he suffered during World War I, Glazunov presented concerts in factories, clubs, and Red Army posts. He played a prominent part in the 1927 Russian observation of the centenary of Beethoven’s death, both as a speaker and conductor.

Early Success
Glazunov’s mother studied piano with Mily Balakirev (1837-1910), who introduced the young Alexander to members of his circle (the Russian “Five,” or Moguchaya Kuchka) and mentored him. After six years of advanced piano study (in 1879), Balakirev introduced him to Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, who taught both at the Conservatory (1871-1905/06) and privately in his apartments. “Once, Balakirev casually brought me the composition of a fourteen-year-old high school student, Sasha [Alexander] Glazunov,” Rimsky-Korsakov recalled. “The boy’s talent was crystal clear.” He took the young man on as a private student and began to conduct his works from 1882, when Glazunov was sixteen. “His musical development progressed not by the day, but literally by the hour.” …

 

read more / weiterlesen … > HERE