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. [11/22/2000]
