GLAZUNOV: Stenka Razin

Krimets, Konstantin, Moscow Symphony Orchestra

8.553538

The rhythmically vibrant symphonic sketch Une fete slave (Slav Holiday), Op. 26a (1888), was an adaptation of the orchestrally suggestive Ukrainian dance-finale from the popular G major String Quartet, Op. 26. Written in the wake of Tchaikovsky's suicide the previous November, the (first) Cortege solennel in D major, Op. 50, and the Fantaisie, Op. 53, both date from 1894. Glazunov subtitled the latter From darkness to light, musically representing such transfiguration by beginning in pathetique B minor and closing in "white" C major - a familiar enough old Neapolitan relationship (think of Haydn and Beethoven) but also a very Russian one in its semitonal sidestepping. • According to his pupil Shostakovich, Glazunov "insisted that composing ballets [and by extension dance music] was beneficial because it developed your technique... he was right". The Mazurka in G, Op. 18 (1888), was the first of several "concert" dances for orchestra independent of a balletic / cyclic context. Together with the earlier Wedding Procession (March), Op. 21 and Triumphal March, Op. 40, the March on a Russian Theme, Op. 76 (1901) shares the same militaristically heroic key of E flat perorated by Mussorgsky in the "Great Gate of Kiev" and Tchaikovsky in his 1812 Overture.

CD

9.09.1996

730099453820