Echoes of Musical Legacy

Glazunov Through the Eyes of Martin West

By: Martin West, Music Director and Principal Conductor

Glazunov’s music straddles the era of the Nationalist Russian Composers, (including his teacher Rimsky Korsakov) and the towering Russian greats of the 20th century, including Shostakovich and Prokofiev. Raymonda was premiered just a few years after Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker and Sleeping Beauty and was written in the same grand style that the Imperial Theatre had come to expect. Full of wonderful melodies, it is opulently scored for a large orchestra, including a rare visitor to the ranks – the cimbalom – which is introduced in the third act. It’s an instrument in which the metal strings are directly hit with wooden sticks to create a distinctive sound. It had been developed in Hungary a few years before Raymonda was written and was a perfect way for Glazunov to depict the Hungarians in the story. As the cimbalom is such a rare instrument these days, this part is often played on a piano but it is exciting that we are welcoming one of America’s top exponents of the instrument for these performances.

Alexander Glazunov was the director of the St Petersburg Conservatory of Music when, in 1919, my conducting teacher Ilya Musin (together with his friend Dmitri Shostakovich) entered as a student. Glazunov had a huge influence on his students and, I am therefore beyond excited, as someone who in turn benefited from Musin’s legendary teaching that Raymonda is coming in its full glory to San Francisco.

Martin West conducts the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra // © Brandon Patoc

I had the privilege of studying in the same rooms that Glazunov taught in, as his bust was looking on as his own pupil taught me. It is a special moment for me, indeed, to be bringing my own tiny part of the legacy of Glazunov to this ravishing ballet score.