Alexander Glasunow

Cortege Solennel op. 50

Alexander Konstantinovich Glazunov was born in 1865 and showed remarkable musical talent at a young age, which was particularly encouraged by his teacher Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. He was accepted into the circle of composers around the music-loving entrepreneur and later music publisher Mitrofan Petrovich Belyayev, who published Glazunov's First Symphony and supported him for the rest of his life. Glazunov admired composers such as Brahms and his close friend Tchaikovsky. In particular, the fusion of Russian music with Western European stylistic elements in Tchaikovsky's compositions had a noticeable influence on Glasunov's own style of writing. He himself managed to build a conciliatory bridge between the rival currents of "national Russian" and Western-oriented musical culture. Glazunov was a master of classical compositional techniques and attached great importance to traditional musical forms. Initially as a teacher and from 1905 as director of the St. Petersburg Conservatory, he experienced and taught a new generation of young composers. His students included Dimitri Shostakovich and Sergei Prokofiev. However, while this up-and-coming generation conquered the music world with a new, sometimes experimental musical language, Glazunov remained true to his traditional musical style. Many of his works were the result of encounters with famous musicians and other artists. CORTÈGE SOLENNEL op. 50 was composed in 1894 for the 70th birthday and fiftieth professional anniversary of the respected music and art critic Vladimir Stasov. This "Solemn Elevator" features an unmistakably Russian tonal language and traditional compositional techniques. Leontij Dunaev has skillfully transferred Glazunov's musical handwriting to the wind orchestra and created an impressive arrangement.