Glinka Orchestral Works including A Life for the Tsar Overture & Suite
The key orchestral works of a composer who greatly influenced Tchaikovsky and Russian music in general, in highly enjoyable performances
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka
Label: ASV
Magazine Review Date: 7/2000
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 70
Catalogue Number: CDDCA1075
Tracks:
Composition | Artist Credit |
---|---|
(A) Life for the Tsar, 'Ivan Susanin', Movement: ~ |
Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka, Composer
Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra Loris Tjeknavorian, Conductor Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka, Composer |
(A) Life for the Tsar, 'Ivan Susanin', Movement: After the battle the god of war (Polonaise and cho |
Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka, Composer
Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra Loris Tjeknavorian, Conductor Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka, Composer |
(A) Life for the Tsar, 'Ivan Susanin', Movement: Krakowiak |
Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka, Composer
Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra Loris Tjeknavorian, Conductor Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka, Composer |
(A) Life for the Tsar, 'Ivan Susanin', Movement: Dances |
Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka, Composer
Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra Loris Tjeknavorian, Conductor Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka, Composer |
(A) Life for the Tsar, 'Ivan Susanin', Movement: Mazurka |
Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka, Composer
Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra Loris Tjeknavorian, Conductor Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka, Composer |
(A) Life for the Tsar, 'Ivan Susanin', Movement: Entr'acte |
Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka, Composer
Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra Loris Tjeknavorian, Conductor Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka, Composer |
Valse-fantaisie |
Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka, Composer
Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra Loris Tjeknavorian, Conductor Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka, Composer |
Kamarinskaya |
Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka, Composer
Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra Loris Tjeknavorian, Conductor Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka, Composer |
Jota aragonesa |
Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka, Composer
Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra Loris Tjeknavorian, Conductor Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka, Composer |
Souvenir d'une nuit d'été |
Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka, Composer
Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra Loris Tjeknavorian, Conductor Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka, Composer |
Author: John Warrack
Glinka left disappointingly little purely orchestral music, and almost everything performable is here. To these captivating pieces, which should be much more frequently played in the West, the Life for the Tsar Suite is really a filler, though occupying more than half the record. It consists of the overture, four of the dances from the opera’s Polish act, and the short entr’acte linking Ivan Susanin’s death to the final Moscow celebrations.
The individual orchestral pieces include, of course, Kamarinskaya, the acorn containing within itself the entire oak of Russian music, as Tchaikovsky famously called it in his diary. The point of the remark lies in Glinka’s ability to vary melodies not by developing them but by constantly changing their harmonic, contrapuntal and orchestral textures. Tchaikovsky was entranced, as the finales of his Second and Fourth Symphonies most immediately show. Glinka influenced Tchaikovsky in other ways, too – with the melodic charm of theValse- fantaisie, for example, where his own model was Weber’s Invitation to the Dance. What a pity that his orchestration of Weber’s original is lost, as it must surely have anticipated the famous version by Berlioz, under whose spell Glinka had fallen in Paris.
Tjeknavorian and the Armenian Philharmonic swing the waltz along nicely, and enjoy themselves greatly in the exoticisms of Glinka’s Spanish explorations which, as well as being immensely enjoyable in their own right, showed the way to composers including Balakirev and Rimsky-Korsakov. Quite an acorn.'
The individual orchestral pieces include, of course, Kamarinskaya, the acorn containing within itself the entire oak of Russian music, as Tchaikovsky famously called it in his diary. The point of the remark lies in Glinka’s ability to vary melodies not by developing them but by constantly changing their harmonic, contrapuntal and orchestral textures. Tchaikovsky was entranced, as the finales of his Second and Fourth Symphonies most immediately show. Glinka influenced Tchaikovsky in other ways, too – with the melodic charm of the
Tjeknavorian and the Armenian Philharmonic swing the waltz along nicely, and enjoy themselves greatly in the exoticisms of Glinka’s Spanish explorations which, as well as being immensely enjoyable in their own right, showed the way to composers including Balakirev and Rimsky-Korsakov. Quite an acorn.'
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