Gliere: Symphony No. 3, 'il'ya Muromets'

Description

Reinhold Gli?¿re (1875 - 1956)Symphony No.3 'Il'ya Muromets' in B Minor, Op. 42Reinhold Gli?¿re (Reyngol'd Moritsevich Glier), a Soviet composer of Belgiandescent, was born in Kiev in 1875, the son of a maker of wind instruments. Heplayed the violin and wrote music at home and studied for three years at theKiev Conservatory before entering the Moscow Conservatory in 1894. There hestudied the violin with Hrimaly, and composition with Taneyev, taking lessons inharmony from Arensky and his pupil Konyus and in orchestration fromIppolitov-Ivanov. He graduated in 1900 with a one-act opera-oratorio Earth andHeaven, based on Byron.Gli?¿re's first employment was as a teacher at the Gnesin Music School, andhe was to spend the summer holidays of 1902 and 1903 as tutor to theeleven-year- old Prokofiev. For two years from 1905 he studied conducting withOscar Fried in Berlin, making his first appearance as a conductor in Russia in1908, while his compositions continued to make a favourable impression. In 1913he returned to Kiev to teach the composition class at the Conservatory, of whichhe became director the following year. His former pupil Prokofiev was to appearas soloist in Kiev in his own first piano concerto under Gli?¿re's direction in1916.From 1920 until his retirement in 1941 Gli?¿re taught composition at theConservatory in Moscow. He showed particular interest in the music of thevarious ethnic minorities of the Soviet Union, making a detailed study of themusic of Azerbaijan that bore fruit in his opera Shakh-Senem, written in1924 and performed in Russian in Baku three years later and in Azerbaijani in1934. His musicological investigations extended to Uzbekistan and other Sovietrepublics, while the more familiar music of the Ukraine provided him withanother native source of inspiration.During his career Gli?¿re occupied a number of official positions. In theearly years of the Revolution he headed the music section of the MoscowDepartment of Popular Education and was Chairman of the organizing committee ofthe Union of Soviet Composers from 1938 until 1948. His work was officiallyrecognised by various state awards, including the title of People's Artist,bestowed in 1938. He died in Moscow in 1956.As a composer Gli?¿re was heir to the Russian romantic tradition, somethingthat brought him official praise in 1948 when the music of Prokofiev andShostakovich was condemned. In particular his ballet music proved popular. TheRed Poppy, later known as The Red Flower, to obviate misunderstanding, satisfiedpolitical choreographic demands, and became a well known part of balletrepertoire from 1926 onwards, and the later ballet-score The Bronze Horseman,completed in 1949, retains a place in Soviet ballet repertoire.Gli?¿re completed his third symphony in 1911, choosing to base it on thelegend of Il'ya Muromets, the subject of ancient Russian epic. Il'ya Muromets isdescribed as the son of a peasant and appears in a number of early Russianpoems, to be identified, it is