I gained significant enjoyment from this desirable release. The delightful and substantial Five Novelettes are a hidden gem worthy of discovery.

Founded over sixty years ago in Chicago the Fine Arts Quartet is a highly accomplished ensemble. On the evidence of these superb performances and other recent releases such as the Schumann String Quartets 1-3 they prove themselves to be in the same elevated league as ensembles such as the Emerson, Škampa, Talich, Takács, Hagen, Quatuor Mosaïques, Kodály, Henschel, Belcea and Zehetmair.

I strongly believe that Glazunov’s substantial output of music is not as well known as it deserves to be. The most frequently heard work is the Violin Concerto (1904). One sometimes hears music from his two major ballets Raymonda (1898) and The Seasons (1900) also the Chant du Ménestrel (1900) in either of its versions for cello and piano or for cello and orchestra. As a frequent attender of chamber music recitals I have yet to hear any performances of Glazunov’s chamber works. Although not known for their progressive or experimental nature his works are generally of high quality and I commend any chamber music lover to hear the two volumes of String Quartets from the Utrecht String Quartet on MDG 603 1236-2 (Quartets 3 and 5) and MDG 603 1237-2 (Quartets 2, 4 and Elegy for Strings) and also the recording of the Quartets 3 and 5 from the Shostakovich Quartet on Regis RRC 1211.

Grove-Online; Wikipedia and virtually every other resource I have consulted give the composition date for Glazunov’s Five Novelettes, Op.15 as 1886. However, the information in the Naxos booklet notes says 1881; which means that Glazunov would have been a mere sixteen year old when he wrote the score. Evidently he originally gave the less descriptive title of ‘Suite’ to this five movement work. Lasting almost as long in performance as the A major String Quintet the amiable and predominantly folk music-inspired Five Novelettes is an outstanding work and a hidden gem of the chamber music repertoire.

Glazunov’s Five Novelettes have all been given exotic titles. They open with an appealing Alla spagnuola (In the Spanish style). Briskly performed with high spirits by the Fine Arts Quartet the piece also contains a contrasting dreamy central section. The dance-like piece entitled Orientale has the character of a Percy Grainger folk dance rather than anything terribly oriental. Again there is a contrasting central core. In the Dorian mode the third movement is a reverential Interludium in modo antico that reminded me of sacred music from the Russian Orthodox Church. There’s considerable warmth and good humour to be heard in the Valse. The buoyantly played final piece, marked All’ungherese (In Hungarian style), convey strong evocations of tradition gypsy and Magyar rhythms.

The four movement String Quintet in A major, Op.39 is scored for a second cello rather than the more usual viola - in the manner of Schubert’s Quintet in C major, D. 956. Here the Fine Arts are augmented by the services of second cellist Nathaniel Rosen. The opening Allegro begins with a glorious melody for the viola. One is struck by the appeal of this highly attractive music infused as it is with lush and brazen Romanticism. Pizzicato strings herald the opening of the engaging Scherzo. The heartrending strains of the Andante could melt even the stoniest of hearts. In the highly-flavoured Russian-sounding themes of the Finale the players successfully conclude proceedings in a robust and vivacious manner.

There are only a small number of alternative versions of Glazunov’s String Quintet and Five Novelettes and none that I consider an improvement over this superb Naxos release. I am reasonably familiar with what is probably the best known version of the String Quintet from the ASMF Chamber Ensemble on Chandos (c/w Tchaikovsky String Sextet in D minor, Op 70). In the Five Novelettes the versions most likely to be encountered are those from the St. Petersburg String Quartet on Delos and also from the Lyric Quartet on Meridian; both recordings having the String Quartet No. 5, Op. 70 as their coupling.

I gained significant enjoyment from this desirable release. The sonics are to demonstration standard. The delightful and substantial Five Novelettes are a hidden gem worthy of discovery.

-- Michael Cookson, MusicWeb International

The Naxos series of Glazunov orchestral works reaches volume 19 with this disc. Composed by Glazunov in 1898 Ruses is also known as The Trial of Damis. This disc is a reissue originally released on Marco Polo 8.220485.

Glazunov was a precocious student of Rimsky-Korsakov during the artistic ferment of the revival of Russian musical nationalism. Composed when he was a sixteen year old Glazunov gained sudden acclaim with the success of his Symphony No. 1. The audience would have been shocked when Glazunov took his bow at the premiere wearing his school uniform. International recognition was established with his symphonies, the tone poem Stenka Razin, the ballets The Seasons and Raymonda, and the ever popular Violin Concerto. He was still composing music in the manner of Rimsky, Anton Rubinstein and Tchaikovsky. His works soon became marginalised having failed to compete with the growing enthusiasm for progressive composers such as Schoenberg, Berg, Stravinsky and his own pupils Prokofiev and Shostakovich. After a century or so we should now be able to reassess Glazunov’s music for its innate qualities rather than be reference to the dynamic of the era in which it was written.

The première of the ballet Les Ruses d'amour was given in the small hall of the Hermitage Theatre, St. Petersburg in 1900. Marius Petipa provided the choreography. The leading dancers were the Italian prima ballerina assoluta Pierina Legnani and her Russian partner Pavel Gerdt. Briefly the story of Les Ruses d'amour centres on the role Isabella who is the daughter of a titled Lady. Isabella pretends to be a maid in a bid to test that the love of her fiancé the Marquis Damis is true and not driven simply by her wealth and status.

The popularity of Les Ruses d'amour has certainly not endured to the same degree as The Seasons and the longer Raymonda ballets that have remained on the fringes of the repertoire. Reasonably appealing, the music of Ruses d'amour is not as recognisable as Glazunov’s other ballets. The composer has not managed to achieve the same melodically memorable quality.

Showing a convincing enthusiasm the Romanian State Orchestra under Horia Andreescu provide creditable playing. I enjoyed the gentle and swaying lyricism of the Introduction and Scene I and in the Recitatif mimique the woodwind-infused music has a distinct bucolic feel. Melody after melody is released in the Sarabanda but the themes are typically unremarkable. One notices the childlike lyricism of the Danse des marionettes and Scenes IV and V are gentle and romantic. The movement Ballabile des paysans et des paysannes is infectious and energetic. I was struck by the soft and tender love music of Grand pas des fiancés which is sugar-coated with a gorgeous line for solo violin and cello. The engaging La Fricassée brings the score to an exciting and energetic conclusion.

Michael Cookson, MusicWeb International

Alexander Glazunov's seven string quartets extend over the entirety of his composing career and are equal in significance to his symphonies. Fused with nationalist sentiment and Classical discipline the First String Quartet secured the Glinka Prize for the teenage composer in 1884. The advances in expressive range and formal integration in the Second Quartet include a rapturous slow movement considered a highlight of his earlier output, while the Third Quartet has become known as 'The Slavonic' for it's evocative folk-music character.

1998 release. Alexander Konstantinovich Glazunov (1865-1936) Orchestral works 8, the Seasons, Op. 67; Scenes de Ballet, Op. 52, Scene Dansante, Op.81 performed by the Moscow Symphony Orchestra Alexander Anissimov conductor. Recorded at Mosfilm Studio, Moscow, Russia in August 1995.

Alexander Anissimov was a conductor unfamiliar to me (some may have heard his much-praised Tchaikovsky Cherevichki at Wexford). He keeps the Moscow Symphony Orchestra on their toes: the strings are keener of articulation than their Bolshoi or Kirov counterparts while balances and dynamics are all observed in an end result of greater sophistication than you might expect from this source (with handsome sound to match). Anissimov excels in the grand symphonic unfolding of the first two numbers and the two Entr’actes, over which he takes more time and care than Fedotov [conducting Kirov].

-- Gramophone [8/1996]