Vocal music was not a favorite genre of Alexander Glazunov. He wrote just over thirty songs, most written in his youth, and passionately disliked opera as a genre. His legacy is predominantly instrumental: Glazunov’s immense intellect was inclined to exploration of ‘pure’ genres such as symphony, quartet, instrumental concertos, and ballet music.
Glazunov’s songs and romances are released here on disc for the first time: the collection comprises 29 of 31 finished compositions. (The remaining works – to Lermontov’s poems “As Soon As The Night With Its Veil” and “No, It’s Not You I Love So Ardently” – were omitted on the grounds that they are far more derivative than the other songs). The vocal heritage of Glazunov is still an under-explored stratum of Russian music, and it is to be hoped that this collection will prove insightful to the attentive listener.
