This week’s theme is…Music About Snow! Snow is one of those everyday miracles. Not quite water, not quite ice, the enchanting and magical hybrid of water’s states of matter transforms many locales of privileged climate into the proverbial “winter wonderland” for several months out of each year. Its imagery is powerful on many levels, from the blanket that coats the landscape to the stunning crystalline structure apparent upon more careful inspection. It acts almost as a living creature with its own distinctive behaviors, interacting as it does with winter’s capricious wind and temperature changes. Snow is a fresh, powerful and mysterious substance that has inspired musicians for centuries. Survey the many ways musicians have effectively represented snow in their compositions.
Music About Snow, Day 3 – “Winter” from The Seasons by Alexander Glazunov
The career of Alexander Glazunov was spent almost exactly halfway between the establishment of Russia’s first, highly nationalistic, school of composing, spearheaded by Balakirev’s “Mighty Five”, and the twentieth century Bolshevik period, which saw the efforts of Prokofiev, Shostakovich and their contemporaries as they struggled to exist peaceably and productively within Stalin’s oppressive regime (not often an easy task). I wouldn’t exactly describe Glazunov as a transitional figure between the two, at least as far as musical style is concerned, since his music does not exactly link the nineteenth century Russian nationalism with abrasive quirkiness the Bolshevik composers. Ironically his music links more closely to works by Stravinsky, who sought to imitate his symphonic style early on. It is ironic because Stravinsky and Glazunov came to share a mutual distaste for one another. But he was an important personal and chronological link, mentored by Rimsky-Korsakov and in turn mentoring the young Dmitri Shostakovich, even if the younger composer did not desire to follow in Glazunov’s stylistic footsteps.
By the time Glazunov had begun to mature the belligerence between the authentic Russians, as exemplified by Balakirev’s circle with their proud unevenness, celebration of folk traditions and open contempt for book learning, and the academics of the conservatory had abated and lost relevance. The beginning of the end came in 1871 when Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, always the surest and steadiest craftsman of Balakirev’s Mighty Handful, accepted a professorship at the St. Petersburg Conservatory. It was, in many ways, a direct affront to the philosophy of Balakirev’s circle, and Rimsky-Korsakov proceeded polish his craftsmanship to an even higher shine. Would this have compromised the vital and red-blooded Russian character of his music? Perhaps, but it is hard to say. If any of Balakirev’s handful would become a professor it was Rimsky-Korsakov. Through this transition away from the unkempt nationalism of the “Five” Rimsky-Korsakov also began to extend the proverbial olive branch to another notable Russian composer, Tchaikovsky. Academy-trained while the “Mighty Handful” were busily pouring out their messy Russian souls, Tchaikovsky was always mistrustful of their inconsistency and emotionalism. He also seemed to create a distinctly Russian music that was somehow more classic, elegant, of better breeding, and Rimsky-Korsakov began to resonate with this more and more after his university appointment.
Alexander Glazunov came under Rimsky-Korsakov’s mentorship around this time. Something of a wunderkind, he was a precocious pianist and composer, with a stunning ear and musical memory. He was able to orchestrate an overture from Borodin’s opera Prince Igor after hearing the composer play it at the piano once. Glazunov grew up in the academy and assimilated the polished, Russian academic style of Tchaikovsky and Rimsky-Korsakov. Still full-bodied, thick, emotional and laden with folk influences, it is also dry, refined and restrained in a way that the music of, say, Mussorgsky is not. Mussorgsky is the most extreme example of the roughness of Balakirev’s group, but the contrast is revealing. Maybe one could say that Tchaikovsky is the best balance between Mussorgsky and Glazunov? Maybe one could say the same about Rimsky-Korsakov, but in a different way? However it is evaluated, Glazunov has lost the historical battle of orchestral programs to all of them. His music is very elegant and well orchestrated, but not always very interesting I’m afraid. Even the trained Tchaikovsky found ways to keep his music full of life and passion in ways that Glazunov did not.
But still, Glazunov had an important role in the history and flow of Russian music. In spite of his receding legacy, he managed to successfully synthesize all the different streams of influence in Russian music while he was alive, extracting important elements from the “Five”, Rimsky-Korsakov, Tchaikovsky, and other composers active toward the end of the nineteenth century, and synthesize them into a highly polished and respectable voice that was able to stand out on the international stage. He directed major conservatories in Russia and mentored young composers like Shostakovich, even if artists of this generation found his music too stiff and old fashioned to be worthy of imitation. They still respected his accomplishments, his stature, and his reputation. And, quite significantly, he was able to offer up the heart of Russian nationalism to the next generation, packaging it together with the rigor and work ethic of the academic mindset. The Bolshevik composers were pure professionals, unlike the whimsical artists of Balakirev’s “Five” who tended to write when inspiration struck, just one of their tendencies that made Tchaikovsky skeptical of their potential.
Glazunov’s music may not be as stunning as the composers he drew from and influenced, but it is stable and sturdy. Seamless, beautifully orchestrated, and precisely cast, it exudes a Romantic grandeur in which it is easy to become swept up. All of these qualities are most evident in one of his most often performed works, his ballet The Seasons. Composed in 1899 and premiered in 1900, shortly before he assumed the directorship of the St. Petersburg Conservatory, it comes from a particularly fertile time in his life during which he produced some of his most masterfully-written works. The ballet was commissioned by the French choreographer Marius Petipa, who is quite possibly the most influential ballet master and choreographer in the history of music, responsible for the golden age of Russian ballet. He settled in St. Petersburg at age 30, fleeing from the disastrous fallout of a romantic indiscretion, and proceeded to elevate Russian ballet to phenomenal levels of genius and beauty. In addition to the great ballets of Tchaikovsky, Petipa commissioned and choreographed ballets by numerous other Russian composers, including three by Glazunov.
The Seasons is cast in 4 scenes, one for each season. Winter is the opening scene, and features a succession of dances about water in its different frozen forms (frost, ice, hail and snow) before a couple of gnomes light a fire and melt everything. The subtle differences between the different solid forms of water serve as a brilliant vehicle for Glazunov’s orchestral craftsmanship. The frost feathers, the ice shines, the hail pelts and the snow floats. Winter is ever transparent, detailed, and finely drawn in precise lines, echoing the summation of the Russian academic and folk traditions. Perhaps it will remind you of restrained Tchaikovsky, but Glazunov’s polished voice breathes vivid life into Petipa’s choreographed winter more than a century after it was first danced.
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