1865 10 in August, Glazunov was born in a publisher's family in Petersburg. His father is a publisher and his mother is a pianist. Glazunov loved music since childhood. During my study in the technical school, I have been recommended by Balakirev (1837~ 19 10) to attend classes in Rimsky-Korsakov (1880 ~1908) once a week. Glazunov greedily studied music theory and composition techniques after school, during the winter and summer vacations, and even when he was ill in bed, and completed the main courses of the composition department of the Conservatory of Music in one and a half years. Rimsky-Korsakov praised: "He is not making progress every day in music, but has been making progress."
188 1 year, Glazunov's symphony No.1 in e major (Slavic) (Op.5, Rimsky-Korsakov) was conducted by Balakirev on March 29th of the following year and premiered at the second concert of the Russian Conservatory of Music that year. When the songwriter, who was only 16 years old, came out in a student uniform, it surprised the audience present. Gay (1835~ 19 18) wrote an article praising the young composer as "brilliant". Those conservative and hostile music critics strongly attack and slander, saying that symphony is the product of parents paying people to catch knives; That night, a flower basket signed by two famous magicians was actually displayed on the stage; The newspaper even portrayed Glazunov as a baby still nursing. There are often swift horses, but Bole is hard to find. Beria Ye Fu (1836~ 1903), the patron of Russian music, after listening to Glazunov's first symphony, praised the rising star of Russian music and gave him full support. Glazunov's talent has aroused great concern in Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky. 1890, Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky wrote in a letter to Glazunov: "I am an ardent admirer of your talent; I cherish and take seriously your pursuit and your loyalty to art. I am willing to promote the full development of your talents and I hope to help you. " To this end, Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky continued to give him guidance and help. Glazunov also benefited from the guidance of Russian polyphonic master Taneyev (1856~ 19 15), thus improving his counterpoint writing skills. Glazunov has a very incisive view on Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky's music creation. He said, "I found that Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky was first and foremost a lyrical melody composer. He brought various elements of opera into the symphony." However, Glazunov's music creation absorbed Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky's lyricism and Borodin's epic, and formed his unique music style of optimism, clarity and lyricism.
1893, Glazunov completed Symphony No.4 in E-flat major, Op.48, and dedicated it to anton rubinstein (1829~ 1894), indicating that his symphony creation is mature. From 189 1, a "Friday party" was held at Ye Fu's home in beria, playing new Russian chamber music. Most of Glazunov's string quartets were played in Friday Night. The third string quartet (Slavic) is the most famous. In addition, Glazunov also created string quintets, piano sketches, romances and chorus works.
Glazunov not only won the respect of his mentor Rimsky-Korsakov, but also became close friends with him. He also became one of the representatives of Russian new music school centered on Rimsky-Korsakov and Liadov (1855~ 19 14). After beria's death, Glazunov and Li * * * were all responsible for protecting his legacy and continuing the career initiated by beria before his death: publishing Russian music works, holding Russian symphony concert and annual competition of works named after glinka (1884- 19 17), aiming at promoting Russian music culture. Glazunov's historic contribution to defending the cultural heritage of Russian national music school is that he and Rimsky-Korsakov adapted Borodin's opera King Igor from 1888 and extended it to1890 * * *; Glazunov wrote the overture to the opera The Memories of Igor. Glazunov also completed two movements of Borodin's unfinished Symphony No.3 in A minor. Whether sorting out or continuing the works of predecessors, Rimsky-Korsakov and Glazunov set a lofty example for future generations by burying their heads in the spirit of creation and mastering the artistic attainments of the original style in order to safeguard the heritage of Russian national music schools. Glazunov is a symphony composer. His absolute hearing and inner hearing have reached the realm of the kingdom of freedom, which is far behind. Like those symphony masters in the history of music, he usually waits until the music is already in his head before writing. Once written down, it is finalized. He is a composer full of symphony thinking. He can play the most complicated music visually, which sounds like an excellent band playing. He knows every instrument in the band like the back of his hand and uses it freely. 1896, when Glazunov visited London, he was boycotted by musicians while conducting the rehearsal of his fourth symphony. The composer leisurely picked up the trumpet on the spot and blew out the notes that were considered "impossible".
From 65438 to 0907, Glazunov was awarded honorary doctorates by Cambridge University and Oxford University respectively. It can be seen that this composer enjoys a high reputation in Britain, even worse than other masters such as Brahms, Saint-Sang, bruch, Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky, dvorak, Bobito and Grieg. It is generally believed that the Fifth Symphony is Glazunov's most outstanding and representative work. Even so, compared with the frequency of classical symphony classics being played in concerts, it is still quite inferior.
1925, a group of Belarusian musicians established the Glazunov Higher Music School in Harbin, China, under the direction of Y·M· Gordesch Jing. 1932 on June 9, 1932, Glazunov's Fifth Symphony was played here (see "Music History of Western Harbin"). Before liberation, the band of Shanghai Industrial Bureau also played this symphony under the command of Rusiqi (see Biography of Li). After the founding of New China, on July 14, 20065438, the author conducted the Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra to perform Glazunov's Fifth Symphony in Xinghai Concert Hall, which became the most popular repertoire that night. 1894, entrusted by the director Petipa (1819 ~10), Glazunov wrote the ballet scene (Op.52) for the first time, which is actually a wonderful orchestral suite.
From 1896 to 1897, he collaborated with Pitipa to complete his first ballet music "Remunda" (Op.57). 189865438+1On October 7th, Remunda premiered in Petersburg, which was a great success. Both artists do not attach importance to the plot of ballet, but are more obsessed with dance steps and music. This ballet music is beautiful and colorful. It inherited the symphonic style of Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky ballet music and became a milestone in the development history of Russian ballet music. The following year, the ballet Miss Maiden (Op.6 1, also known as The Test of Damis) was completed, staged in 1900, and revised in 1924. The elegant and exquisite one-act drama Four Seasons (Op.67) was completed in 1899 and premiered in Petersburg in 1900. It includes four scenes of winter, spring, summer and autumn, and *** 16 pieces of music. Anna pavlova (1881~ 1931), a great Russian ballet artist, was only19 years old, in which she performed her first role and became famous. In addition, Glazunov's Chopin Suite (Op.46, 1893) was staged in 1907, directed by Fujin (1880~ 1942), and later renamed as "The Fairies", as well as Schumann, Liszt and Liszt. Glazunov has been a professor at the Petersburg Conservatory of Music since 1899. 1905, Glazunov resigned to protest against the czar's dismissal of Rimsky-Korsakov from the Conservatory of Music. At the end of the same year, the authorities were forced to compromise. After the college finally got the autonomy to hire professors and choose the dean, Rimsky-Korsakov, Glazunov and others returned to the college, and Glazunov became the dean after Rimsky-Korsakov until 1928. Glazunov has been engaged in music education for 30 years and made outstanding contributions. He is one of the founders of Russian professional music education, but it has consumed the composer's energy for nearly half his life. At that time, Russia was experiencing unprecedented social changes, and it was not difficult to imagine the troubles Glazunov encountered. He spared no effort to protect Jewish students and Kratzmer from the slaughter of the czar authorities. He uses his annual salary to help poor students. He humorously warned the students: "You are so lucky, young people. There are so many wonderful things waiting for you to discover. As for me, I have dabbled in everything, but unfortunately. "
At the end of the school year, without exception, he personally listened to hundreds of students' exams (including percussion exams), and made comments and wrote comments one by one. During his leadership of the Petersburg Conservatory of Music (renamed Leningrad Conservatory of Music after the October Revolution), thousands of students benefited from the teaching of a master Glazunov. 1922, the Soviet government commended the 40th anniversary of Glazunov's creative career. He was awarded the honorary title of * * * and China People's Artist, and decided to give Glazunov convenience for his creative activities and living conditions commensurate with his achievements. However, he immediately expressed the hope that he would not be placed in different living conditions from other citizens; At the same time, it calls on the government to take care of the heating problem of the Conservatory of Music, so as to solve the firewood urgently needed by the Conservatory of Music in time. As we all know, after the October Revolution, a large number of Russian musicians, such as Sharyabin, Gretchaninov, serge koussevitzky, Marko, Rakhmaninov, Heifetz, Piatigorsky, Holovics and prokofiev, went into exile. After visiting Helsinki and Germany on 192 1~ 1922, Glazunov resolutely returned to the motherland. 1928, Glazunov went to Vienna to participate in activities commemorating the 0/00th anniversary of Schubert's death/kloc-0, and then went to Paris for medical treatment. In fact, it was Glazunov who came forward to defend Rimsky-Korsakov's orchestration version of Boris Godonov, and was viciously attacked by Asafyev, a scholar in the music field at that time, which seriously hurt the dignity of the master and forced him to leave his native Russia.
Due to the deterioration of health and depression, during the eight years of living abroad, his music creation and social activities were very few. From 65438 to 0929, Glazunov visited the United States and conducted and played his sixth symphony in Detroit. During this period, the composer only wrote the seventh string quartet in C major (Op. 107, Op. 1930), a cello narrative concerto in C major (Op. 108, Op. 193 1) and a song in E flat major.