Glazunov created a world of happiness, fun, peace, flight, rapture, thoughtfulness and much, much more, always happy, clear and deep, always unusually noble, winged ...

Anatoly Lunacharsky

The work of Alexander Konstantinovich Glazunov received universal recognition and became an integral part of the Russian classical musical heritage. His works do not shock the listener, do not touch the innermost depths of mental life – they can deliver aesthetic pleasure and delight with their spontaneous vigor and inner integrity, combined with wise clarity of thought, harmony and completeness of embodiment. Being the composer of the "transitional" period laying across two epochs of the Russian music bright flourishing, Glazunov was not the innovator and new paths’ scout. Hence, his immense, perfect skill with his outstanding natural talent, wealth and generosity of creative invention allowed him to create many works of high artistic value, which still have not lost a lively interest. As a teacher and public figure, Glazunov greatly contributed to the development and strengthening of the Russian musical culture foundation. All this determines his significancy as one of the central figures of Russian musical culture at the beginning of the 20th century.

Restrained inner strength and invariable nobility - these personality traits of the composer attracted like-minded musicians, listeners, and numerous students to him. Glazunov's path in music spans about half a century. There have been ups and downs in it. The main take-off of his work falls on the 80-90s. 19th century and early 1900s Despite the periods of creative crises, the growing number of musical, public and pedagogical issues, during these years Glazunov created many large-scale symphonic works (poems, overtures, fantasies), including "Stenka Razin", "Forest", "Sea", "Kremlin”, Symphonic suite “From the Middle Ages”. At the same time, most of the string quartets (five out of seven) and other ensemble pieces appeared. There are instrumental concerts, romances, choirs and cantatas in the creative heritage of Glazunov as well. However, the main achievements of the composer are associated with symphonic music. The symphonies of Glazunov astound by the harmony and clarity of architectonics, inexhaustible inventiveness and the generous variety of the orchestral palette.

Glazunov's ballets, in which the coherence of the plot recedes back from the tasks of vivid musical characteristic, can also be considered the extended symphonic pictures. The most famous of them is “Raymonda” (1897). The consonance of time, sense of historical perspective is inherent to Glazunov in all musical genres. The logical precision and rationality of design, active use of polyphony - it is impossible to imagine the personality of Glazunov-symphonist without these qualities.

For the birthday of the composer, we have prepared a musical selection made up of the works that he composed.

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