| Reinhold Glière (11 January 1875 – 23 June 1956) [SOURCE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gliere] Reinhold Glière was a Russian and Soviet composer of German–Polish descent. He was born in Kiev, Russian Empire. He was the second son of the wind instrument maker Ernst Moritz Glier (1834–1896) from Saxony (Klingenthal), who emigrated to the Russian Empire and married Józefa (Josephine) Korczak (1849–1935), the daughter of his master, from Warsaw, Poland. His original name, as given in his baptism certificate, was Reinhold Ernest Glier. About 1900 he changed the spelling and pronunciation of his surname to Glière, which gave rise to the legend, stated by Leonid Sabaneyev for the first time (1927), of his French or Belgian descent. He entered the Kiev school of music in 1891, where he was taught violin by Otakar Ševčík, among others. In 1894 Glière entered the Moscow Conservatory where he studied with Sergei Taneyev (counterpoint), Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov (composition), Jan Hřímalý (violin), Anton Arensky and Georgi Konjus (both harmony). He graduated in 1900. In the following year Glière accepted a teaching post at the Moscow Gnesin School of Music. Taneyev found two private pupils for him in 1902: Nikolai Myaskovsky and the eleven-year old Sergei Prokofiev. Glière studied conducting with Oskar Fried in Berlin from 1905 to 1908. One of his co-students was Serge Koussevitzky, who conducted the premiere of his Symphony No. 2, Op. 25, on 23 January 1908 in Berlin. Back in Moscow, Glière returned again to the Gnesin School. In the following years he composed the Symphonic Poem Sireny, Op. 33 (1908) and the Programme Symphony Ilya Muromets, Op. 42 (1911). In 1920 Glière moved to the Moscow Conservatory, where he (intermittently) taught until 1941. Aram Khachaturian and Alexander Mosolov were some of his pupils from the Moscow era. Glière's symphonic idiom, which combines broad Slavonic epics with cantabile lyricism, is governed by rich, colourful harmony, bright and well-balanced orchestral colours and perfect traditional forms. Obviously this secured his acceptance by Tsarist and Soviet authorities, at the same time creating resentment from many composers who suffered intensely under the Soviet regime. As the latter genuine representative of the pre-revolutionary national Russian school, i.e. as a 'living classic', Glière was immune to the standard reproach of 'formalism' (mostly equivalent to 'modernity' or 'bourgeois decadence'). Among Glière's most appealing works are his Symphonies No. 1 (first movement (1) ♫, first movement (2) ♫, second movement ♫, third movement ♫, fourth movement ♫), No. 2 (movements I and II ♫, movements III and IV ♫), No. 3 (all movements ♫) and his ballet The Red Poppy (selection 1 ♫, selection 2 ♫, selection 3 ♫). |