The Seasons


Early this morning I listened to the ballet music, The Seasons, by Alexander Glazunov (10 August [O.S. 29 July] 1865 – 21 March 1936) who was a Russian composer, teacher and conductor. He served as director of the St. Petersburg Conservatory (later Leningrad) between 1905 and 1928. He continued heading the Conservatory until 1930, though he had left the Soviet Union in 1928 and did not return. The best known student under his tenure during the early Soviet years was Dimitri Shostakovich. Glazunov reconciled Russian Nationalism and Western influences in his music and generally resisted the more extreme modern tendencies of the early 20th century. He ended his career in exile in Paris.
The Seasons was premiered in St. Petersburg in 1900 and has been recorded several times. The music is highly romantic, reminiscent of the great ballets of Tchaikovsky and Delibes. The ballet opens with scenes depicting Winter and continues through the seasons to an Autumn finale. My favorite selections are the Waltz of the Cornflowers and Poppies (probably the most familiar melody) from the Summer, and the Bacchanal and Finale from the Autumn. Each time I listen to this music I am touched by memories of previous moments of listening with the music touching me deeply. I then spend the rest of the day with melodies from the ballet streaming through my consciousness. It is powerful music with great moments of creative triumph.

Russian Easter Overture


Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov composed the Russian Easter Overture in 1888 and conducted the first performance in December of that year. Last night I attended a performance by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra led by guest conductor Charles Dutoit. I was surprised to discover, upon reading the program notes, that it had not been performed on a subscription concert since 1951. This is among Rimsky-Korsakov's most popular works and its absence from Orchestra hall for more than a half century is inexplicable. Fortunately it has returned and the audience was treated to the stunning orchestration of Rimsky-Korsakov who was at the height of his powers when he wrote this piece, following Capriccio Espagnole and Sheherazade which had premiered earlier in the same year. Under Dutoit's baton each section of the orchestra displayed the virtuosity that is the hallmark of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
The concert also included the Symphony in C of Igor Stravinsky, a twentieth century neoclassical icon completed in 1940 specifically for the fiftieth anniversary of the orchestra, and the Brahm's First Piano Concerto performed by the virtuoso Russian pianist Yevgeny Kissin. Each work was performed brilliantly by the orchestra while Kissin's mastery of the difficult Brahms concerto was the high point of the evening. This was certainly one of the best concerts that I have had the pleasure to attend this season.

Stravinsky

Last night I attended a performance of Igor Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Esa-Pekka Salonen. This exciting work, subtitled Scenes of Pagan Russia in Two Parts, still is able to send chills up my spine with its' daring rhythms and harmonies. From the opening bassoon solo the melodies that emerge from the various wind instruments are strikingly dissonant. The music continues with increasing complexity, discord and a variety of rhythmic and melodic figures. Through the use of ostinato and variations in pulse of the music the effect is exhilarating for this listener. Salonen provided energetic leadership for the CSO which performed this difficult work with excellence. As I study Stravinsky's music over the next few weeks I expect to experience additional musical thrills.

Colas Breugnon

I have an affinity for the music of Russian composers. One of my favorite compositions, and less familiar than many, is the delightful overture by Dmitri Borisovich Kabalevsky, Colas Breugnon, Op. 24. This is the overture for his opera based on the original story by Romain Rolland (1919), of Jean-Christophe and Nobel Prize fame. The overture has interesting, even tantalizing harmonies and an orchestration that suggests that Kabalevsky studied the Rimsky-Korsakoff Principles of Orchestration well. My favorite recording remains that of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra led by Fritz Reiner.