GLAZUNOV: Piano Concertos Nos. 1 and 2
About the Composer:
Alexander Glazunov (d. 1936) studied under Rimsky-Korsakov, finished some of Borodin’s work, taught Shostakovich, left the Soviet Union in 1928, and was hailed as a great of his time.
About the Music:
Piano Concerto No. 1 is good, but I really like Piano Concerto No. 2. I listened to this disc in conjunction with Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto No. 1 and No. 2 – trying to trace any influences Glazunov’s pieces might have had on his Pupil, Shostakovich, with my uneducated ear, but was unsuccessful.
The Variations on a Russian Theme have an interesting background, explained in this adaptation from the liner Notes: “The Variations on a Russian Theme is a composite work, written in honour of the tenth anniversary of Nikolay Vladimirovich Galkin’s conductorship of the concerts at Pavlovsk. It was first performed there on 4th July 1901. The theme was chosen by Rimsky-Korsakov’s youngest daughter, Nadezhda Nikolayevna, from Balakirev’s collection of traditional Russian folk-songs. According to Vasily Vasilyevich Yastrebsev in his Reminiscences of Rimsky-Korsakov, only Nikolay Sokolov had taken the task seriously, while Rimsky-Korsakov, Lyadov and Glazunov had approached the work in lighter-hearted fashion. Nikolay Artsybushev’s opening variation is in the style of a triumphant march. The evocative second variation with its answering phrases, a version which Yastrebsev describes as ‘quite good’, was by the Latvian composer Vītols, a former pupil of Rimsky-Korsakov and a professor of composition at the St Petersburg Conservatory until the Revolution. Lyadov, the composer of the lively third variation introduced by flutes and piccolo, was a colleague of Rimsky-Korsakov at the Conservatory. Rimsky-Korsakov’s variation, introduced by trumpets and clarinets, is compared by Yastrebsev to a traditional Russian bilina. Nikolay Sokolov, a former pupil of Rimsky-Korsakov and later teacher of Shostakovich at the Conservatory, offers a finely crafted version of the material. The set ends with Glazunov’s Moderato maestoso, a stately celebration of Galkin, well fitted to the occasion.”
