Glazunov’s symphonies are a significant cycle within the Russian symphony, to which similar status should be accorded as the today considerably better-known symphonic cycles by his successors Prokofiev, Myaskovsky or Shostakovich. Like Camille Saint-Saëns in France or Max Bruch in Germany, Alexander Glazunov was a truly progressive, but formally conservatively thinking composer who was not willing to sacrifice the traditional symphonic form to superficial Modernism. It is now time to rehabilitate Glazunov’s symphonies. Whoever studies them intensively will discover some of the finest music of their time and particularly under the wonderful baton of the great Glazunov champion Neeme Järvi.
