It’s always interesting
to trace the line that links composers
to one another and Gliere is certainly
in place among the greats. His teachers
included Taneyev, Arensky and Ippolitov-Ivanov,
and, with Arensky we can go back to
his teacher Rimsky-Korsakov.
Looking forward Gliere’s students included
Khachaturian, Lev Knipper and Boris
Lyatoshinsky as well as Myaskovsky,
the eleven-year old Prokofiev and Scriabin’s
young son.
Gliere’s music is unashamedly
romantic in style and this disc shows
that he learned a great deal from his
teacher Arensky who taught him harmony.
There are clear parallels between the
two works on this disc and Arensky’s
Piano Trio, Op. 32. In common with Arensky
and most, if not all, Russian* composers,
Gliere draws upon Russian folk melodies,
which is an element that makes it easy
to identify works as being Russian rather
than anything else.
Of Belgian extraction
Reyngol’d Moritzevich Gliere was born
in Kiev on January 11, 1875. Music was
all around him at home since his family
were master instrument makers and his
father passed on his skills as a player
of flute, clarinet, horn, trumpet and
other instruments. Gliere’s eldest brother
was an excellent cellist and his sister
was a pianist, whilst Gliere himself
counted the violin as his favourite
instrument. Their playing together at
home perhaps explains his great love
for chamber music, a genre in which
he wrote during a period of more than
50 years. It is another of those unexplained
things that Gliere’s name is not better
known. Apart from a suite from his ballet
"The Red Poppy", his Third
Symphony subtitled "Ilya Muromets",
and his Concerto for Coloratura Soprano
and Orchestra, his music has been almost
entirely neglected. I am sure, however,
that should this disc find the success
amongst listeners that it deserves,
they will seek out others of his works.
These two compositions are beautifully
written and left me frustrated that
I could not put my hand upon any other
works in my collection apart from the
three mentioned above.
Gliere’s String Octet
was composed in 1900 and, as the liner
notes explain, is a rarity; mixed octets
are far more common. Spohr, Mendelssohn,
Svendsen, Enescu and Shostakovich are
the only other well known-composers
who wrote for this format. Following
its premiere on January 11 (24), 1901,
the Russian Musical Gazette wrote "The
Octet attracted much public attention
and proved a great success. One of the
foremost merits of the Octet is its
exalted mood, suffusing nearly every
bar. Gliere’s music flows smoothly,
lightly, and naturally, while at the
same time shining with elegant themes
and betraying accomplished mastery of
the string instruments".
The first movement
is steeped in Russian themes and suggestions
of Borodin’s Polovtsian Dances are interwoven
into his own clearly original thoughts.
Everything is superbly scored and brought
off in brilliant style. The Russian
soul is fully displayed in the second
movement which runs into the third movement
that begins quietly and then builds
into a full scale and powerfully passionate
declamation before ending in gentle
mood as it began. The final movement
depicts a Russian festival and is richly
layered and colourfully scored to create
a musical tapestry that belies the fact
that there are only eight instruments
playing. The work ends on a triumphant
note.
The Sextet of 1905
was Gliere’s third work in this form,
and was dedicated to Mitrofan Belyayev,
a patron of the arts and a publisher
of many of Gliere’s compositions who
had died a year before it was written.
Though the work is heartfelt throughout
Gliere resists mournful sentimentality
and, instead, embodies Belyayev’s musical
preferences that were expressed at musical
gatherings at Belyayev’s home and at
the chamber society he founded. Once
again powerful themes abound and the
six string instruments sound much more
than the sum of their parts. Whilst
the opening movement is light and optimistic
in tone the second goes much deeper
emotionally and the layers are laid
down in thick, richly coloured harmonies.
The core of this movement is a gorgeously
heartfelt theme tinged with tragic undertones
that once again lay bare the "Russian
soul".
The third movement
pulls us back from the sounds of sadness
into a lively scherzo with echoes of
Tchaikovsky. Gliere creates a sound
picture of a bustling peasant fair with
the violins convincingly passing themselves
off as balalaikas, and the movement
ends with the fading strains of a songlike
theme. The final Allegro Vivace revisits
ideas from the opening movement and
there are many and varied moods, themes
and tempos in it that confirm Gliere’s
mastery of counterpoint, harmony and
his sheer ability in writing wonderful
tunes.
The German music critic
Wilhelm Altmann wrote "The Sextet
abounds in exalted, fascinating ideas
and images that could make a symphony.
This is a composition every lover of
chamber music should know"… I heartily
concur!
*In using the description
"Russian" I am aware that
Gliere was, strictly speaking, Ukrainian,
but I feel Russian is the more widely
understood and accurate description
for the musical heritage he shared.
Steve Arloff
Laurencius Dinica, Violin; Stephan Schulze,
Violin; Walther Kussner, Viola; Wolfgang Talirz,
Viola; Christoph Igelbrink, Cello; Mathias Donderer,
Cello (both works); Kotowa Machida, Violin; Christoph
von der Nahmer (Octet only) 
