Alexander Glazunov (1866-1936) lived long enough to see modernism take root throughout Europe, including Russia where his greatest student, Dmitri Shostakovich, was already making a name for himself. But it never affected Glazunov's own music. He remained a 19th century Russian Romantic until the day he died. This collection takes bits and pieces from various releases in Naxos' Glazunov series and structures them in such a way as to provide a good hour's worth of listening. Glazunov's showstoppers are here, mostly in three tasty excerpts from The Seasons (including the brilliant "Autumn") as well as the allegro from the Violin Concerto (the soloist is Ilya Kaler, the orchestra the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, all of whom are excellent). Also here are three selections from Glazunov's underrated Raymonda, a Scheherazade-like ballet full of memorable melodies. The disc opens, however, with an excerpt from Finnish Sketches ("Solemn Procession") that should be better known. Excerpts are also here from two symphonies, the Second and the Fourth. All of the performances are topnotch and the recorded sound is lush and richly colored. This is music that seems almost impossible to get wrong. If you're new to Glazunov, start here. --Paul Cook, ClassicsToday.com

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Glazunov, A.K.: Orchestral Works, Vol. 9 - Finnish Fantasy

Glazunov, A.K.: Orchestral Works, Vol. 5 - Symphonies Nos.

Glazunov, A.K.: Orchestral Works, Vol. 14 - Piano Concertos

Glazunov, A.K.: Orchestral Works, Vol. 11 - Concerto Ballata

GLAZUNOV: Violin Concerto in A Minor / The Seasons

Glazunov, A.K.: Orchestral Works, Vol. 2 - the Kremlin / Fr

This is a hybrid Super Audio CD playable on both regular and Super Audio CD players.

Classical Music

Glazunov, A.K.: Orchestral Works, Vol. 12 - Symphonies Nos.

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

GLAZUNOV String Quartets: No. 1; No. 7 • Utrecht Qrt • MDG 603 1736-2 (52: 16)


Contrasting the first and last string quartets of Glazunov on a single release is a good idea. Unlike many such pairings, they literally do represent the beginning and end of his compositional career, a sort of real-life version of Machaut’s Ma fin est mon commencement . And Glazunov, as one of the foremost admirers in his day of the Franco-Flemish School and its antecedents, would have caught the reference.


His String Quartet No. 1 was the composer’s first published work, premiered in 1882, when he was 16. It was first presented at one of the Friday soirées of the wealthy timber merchant Mitrofan Belyayev, where composers and performers met each week to perform and critique each other’s work. The public premiere took place a few months later, and received an ovation similar to Glazunov’s First Symphony. At a time when Russian nationalism was still a subject of intense debate, with few adequate examples in chamber music, this First Quartet conveys technical assurance and a rich sense of style. The opening movement possesses an authority in its inspired materials and detailed, idiomatic writing that would credit a far more experienced composer. The scherzo is competent, but less individualized, as Glazunov wouldn’t start up his series of remarkable essays in this vein until the Second Symphony, four years later. By contrast, the songful, miniature andante is an early cradle song-like example of the striking lyricism and harmonic subtleties the composer would subsequently lavish on many similar movements. The finale is one of those hybrid sonata-rondos based on two folklike themes that Glazunov would use repeatedly to round off his larger multimovement works.


The Seventh String Quartet was completed in 1930, in Paris. It was among Glazunov’s last compositions, and is both considerably more vivid and imaginative than the pallid Sixth of nine years earlier. Its opening movement is unusually rich in imitative textures and contrapuntal procedures, looking back to the Renaissance, as noted above—not for nothing its subtitle, Hommage au passé . Russian nationalism, which had become less pronounced in Glazunov’s later works, reappears as well, though without discarding the chromatically shifting harmonies of his Eighth and unfinished Ninth symphonies. The slow movement, “Le souffle du printemps,” has the character of a lyrical recitative surrounding lighter material that occasionally launches into full-throated, Borodin-like song. The scherzo, labeled “Dans la forêt mystérieuse,” is the last in an amazing series notable for their delicacy, whimsy, and imagination. This one, spun out of short motifs, irregular rhythms, and counterpoint, creates an impression of unpredictable, fast-moving shadows and complex features beneath a transparently simple surface. The finale, “Festival Russe,” is exactly what it says—with celebratory bells, balalaikas strumming, and a chorus singing joyous hymns, as well as brief recollections of earlier movements, handled with panache. Thus Glazunov returned to the inspiration of his musical youth, and for a brief moment successfully recovered it.


This is the final release in the Utrecht String Quartet’s Glazunov series. I’ve previously reviewed its recordings of the Third and Fifth quartets (MDG 603 1236-2), the Sixth Quartet and the Novelettes (MDG 603 1239-2), and the String Quintet and Suite for String Quintet (MDG 603 1238). The features of its work as a group have remained fairly constant: technically expert playing, a sleekly attractive tone, and an internal response to each other and to the music that is only possible when an ensemble has worked a great deal of time on a given work. The approach is cooler, more objectified than the older Shostakovich Quartet recordings of Glazunov from the 1970s (on Olympia; deleted, but still available from some sources) that feature warmer phrasing, a less linear approach to tempo, and more rubato and portamento. Overall, I respond better in this music to the Shostakovich’s approach, which was developed in training under musicians to whom Russian nationalism was as natural as Beethoven and Brahms. But I find much to enjoy in the Utrecht’s balance, textural clarity, and affection for these works.


The group is least successful in the First Quartet’s finale, where in place of the moderato tempo designation it prefers an andante for much of the movement, and in the Seventh Quartet’s andante affectuoso , which goes at a moderato clip and loses much of its charm in the process. These two instances on this disc (and others, in the series) seem of a part with the group’s emotional coolness, a certain reticence to engage the music at a simple emotional level—hence the inability to express effusive enthusiasm and tenderness. Far better is the finale to the Seventh Quartet, also marked moderato , but with more vigor and flexibility, perhaps because the movement is more complex than its counterpart in the First. The soft playing in the Seventh’s scherzo is a treat, and the four-part harmony, though lacking the richness of the Shostakovich performers, has a spaciousness and majesty that contributes much to the opening movements of both works.


The sound is immediate and close, yet without mechanical noises. In short, this is a distinguished recording by the Utrecht String Quartet, and a suitable one on which to end its survey of Glazunov.


FANFARE: Barry Brenesal