Glazunov: Complete Piano Music, Vol. 3

Featuring

Stephen Coombs
Alexander Glazunov

Did you know?

1/6

Composer's Artistic Vision

Glazunov, as recalled by his student Shostakovich, emphasized polyphony as the most important element in composition, highlighting accompanying voices and chromatic progressions in his demonstrations.

Composer Biography

Despite severe hardships and poor health after the Revolution, Glazunov continued to compose, driven by a sense of responsibility for musicians and the preservation of important work.

Cultural Impact

Despite being largely ignored in the West, Glazunov's influence as a musical conciliator lived on in successive generations of post-Revolutionary composers, especially his greatest student, Shostakovich.

Historical Context

Glazunov continued composing challenging works like the Four Preludes and Fugues, Op 101, in 1918, even as younger composers like Stravinsky and Prokofiev were considered the new voices of Russian music.

Composer Biography

Alexander Glazunov holds a particular place in Russian music, inheriting the nationalistic expression of Glinka and Anton Rubinstein's desire to integrate Russian art into European culture.

Compositional Technique

Glazunov's piano music showcases his skill as a miniaturist, the elegance of his salon music, his harmonic adventurism, and his mastery of counterpoint and large-scale forms.