Mikhail Glinka

Mikhail Glinka

Source: Stock Music

Launching the HMR Project in Russian composing is Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka (Глинка Михаил Иванович), generally considered the fountainhead of Russian classical music or, to quote Tchaikovsky loosely, the acorn of the oak tree of Russian symphony. (Of two orchestral works titled for symphony in circa 1824 and 1834, neither were finished.) Glinka was born on 1 June 1804 in what is now Smolensk Oblast on the eastern border of Poland (now Belarus). During his time such as Poland and Spain yet occupied fringe status to the hubs of classical music in Austria, Germany, Italy, Bohemia (Prague), London and, especially, Paris. But Russia, rococo palaces not withstanding, was nigh as frontier at the time as the United States was foreign. It was a trip by coach or sledge in Russian snow where there wasn't rail at major hubs such as between Berlin and Paris. Beyond Berlin it was coach and horse again w a couple weeks to Moscow. Glinka's travels greatly contributed to Russia's inclusion in the European theater of classical music. As for opus numbers, though Glinka (others?) apparently assigned such to his titles, I've not been able to discover a catalogue which lists them.

Glinka's father was a wealthy captain retired from the army of the Tsar. After Mikhail's grandmother died he received his care and education, including piano and violin, from a brainy governess who taught him languages as well. At 13 he was sent to a school for the nobility in Saint Petersburg, where he began to compose. His first-known complete composition was 'Variations on a Theme by Mozart' ('Вариации на тему Моцарта') in E-flat major for piano or harp:

'Variations on a Theme by Mozart'   From Mozart's 'Die Zauberflöte'   Mikhail Glinka   1822

Piano: Victor Ryabchikov   <1997

Graduating from the Pedagogical Institute in 1924, having in the meantime begun to compose for orchestra, chamber and voice, Glinka obtained his first employment that year as an assistant secretary in the Tsar's Department of Public Highways. Most of Glinka's composing throughout the twenties into the thirties was for chamber, piano or voice. In 1830 he made the long journey from Russia to Italy to study at the Milan Conservatory. Among works composed during that Italian period of three years were his 'Grand Sextet', 'Trio Pathétique' in D minor ('Патетическое трио') and 'Brilliant divertissement based on motifs from the opera 'La Sonnambula' by V. Bellini' ('Блестящий дивертисмент на мотивы из оперы «Сомнамбула» В. Беллини'), each of 1832.

'Grand Sextet'   Mikhail Glinka   1832

Soloists Ensemble w piano by Mikhail Pletnev   1993

'Trio Pathétique' in D minor   Movements 1-2   Mikhail Glinka   1832

Piano: Dmitri Vinnik   Clarinet: Kari Kriikku   Cello: Natalia Gutman

'Trio Pathétique' in D minor   Movements 3-4   Mikhail Glinka   1832

Piano: Dmitri Vinnik   Clarinet: Kari Kriikku   Cello: Natalia Gutman

'Divertimento Brilliante' in A-flat major   From Bellini's 'La sonnambula'   Mikhail Glinka   1832

Piano: Alexander Moglievsky

In 1833 Glinka composed 'Motif de chant national' for piano, perhaps per an unidentified national anthem contest, later retitled 'The Patriotic Song' ('Patrioticheskaya Pesnya' or Патриотическая песня') in 1944. That became the Russian national anthem from 1991 to 2000, succeeded since then by the 'State Anthem of the Russian Federation', a retitling of the 'State Anthem of the Soviet Union' as of 1944 with music by Alexander Alexandrov and text by Sergey Mikhalkov. Glinka's 'Patriotic Song' didn't come with lyrics at the time and never officially acquired any. I've not been able to identify who originally arranged the piece for orchestra.

'Patriotic Song'   Mikhail Glinka   1833

Piano: Aleksey Pervushin

Along Glinka's return to the homeland in 1834 he studied for several months with music theorist, Siegfried Dehn, in Berlin. As mentioned, his 'Symphony on Two Russian Themes' of 1834 was left unfinished, not to see completion for some hundred more years by Vissarion Yakovlevich Shebalin (1902-63), first performed in 1938 [Marinsky]:

'Symphony on Two Russian Themes'   Mikhail Glinka   Incomplete 1834

BBC Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Vassily Sinaisky

On 9 Dec 1836 Glinka staged his first opera, 'A Life for the Tsar' (aka 'Ivan Susanin'), at the Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre in Saint Petersburg. The epilogue of 'A Life for the Tsar' is 'Slav'sya' (romanization of 'Славься' or 'Be Glorified'). The original Imperial version with lyrics by Vasily Zhukovsky and Egor Fyodorovich Rozen in praise of the Tsar is less performed than the version patriotic to the Russian nation (Tsar out) written by Sergey Gorodetsky. There is also a military version originally arranged by Yevgeny Makarov. Glinka was rewarded with 4000 rubles by Tsar Nicholas I for 'A Life for the Tsar' and made instructor at the Imperial Chapel Choir in St. Petersburg the next year. He was to be paid lodging and 25,000 rubles per annum. The exchange rate of one ruble in 1830 was about $24.50 in the United States in 1830. Adjusted for inflation, one dollar in 1830 equals nearly 30 of them today, coming to a paycheck of nearly $1,800,000 in current US dollars.

'A Life For the Tsar'   First opera by Mikhail Glinka   1834-36

C & O of the Bolshoi Theatre w conducting by Alexander Lazarev   Moscow 1992

Directed by Nicolai Kuznetsov   Stage design: Valery Levental   [Opera On Video]

'Be Glorified' ('Славься' or 'Slav'sya')   Epilogue to 'A Life For the Tsar'   Mikhail Glinka   1836

Original version by Vasily Zhukovsky & Egor Fyodorovich Rozen

Belgrade National Opera Chorus w the Lamoureux Orchestra directed by Igor Markevitch

Wikipedia has Glinka setting the 'Cherubic Hymn' (Op 31 No.11) to music in 1837, otherwise spelled 'Heruvimskaya Pesn'' for 'Херувимскaя пeснь'. The 'Cherubic Hymn' entered the liturgy of the Eastern Orthodox Church in Byzantium in the 6th century and has seen versions by numerous Russian composers:

'Cherubic Hymn'   Mikhail Glinka   1837

National Lutheran Choir   Basilica of Saint Mary   Minneapolis   7 Dec 20162

Glinka completed the first of two versions of 'Waltz Fantasia' ('Вальс Фантазия') in 1839. His next opera, 'Ruslan and Lyudmila', was staged on 27 Nov 1842 at the Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre in Saint Petersburg. Though that excelled his prior opera in effort it wasn't greatly popular:

Overture to 'Ruslan and Lyudmila'   Mikhail Glinka   1837-42

Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra directed by Valery Gergiev

In 1944 Glinka took off for western Europe again, this time to Paris where he worked with Hector Berlioz that and the next year. Glinka then traveled to Spain where he spent a couple years, meanwhile writing 'Spanish Overture No.1', the first of a couple upon No.2 arriving in 1851:

'Spanish Overture No.1'   Mikhail Glinka   1845

USSR Symphony Orchestra conducted by Yevgeni Svetlanov   1969

He was in Warsaw in 1848 when he orchestrated 'Kamarinskaya' subtitled 'Fantasia on Two Russian Themes', addressing the Russian folk dance by the same name. His final compositions arrived in 1856 (possibly 1857), with the revision of his 1839 'Waltz Fantasia' ('Вальс Фантазия') among them:

'Kamarinskaya: Fantasia on Two Russian Themes'   Mikhail Glinka   1848

Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Liang Zhang   2016

'Waltz Fantasia'   Mikhail Glinka   1856 revision of 1839

USSR Symphony Orchestra conducted by Yevgeni Svetlanov   1968

In 1856 Glinka went to Berlin where he died upon catching a cold on 15 February 1857. At the avant-garde of the Russian invasion of classical music in western Europe - to be followed by a plump list of Romantic and modern composers conspicuously among the greatest in music - Glinka had written mainly for piano, voice, chamber and orchestra along with several works for stage.