GLINKA, Mikhail

b Novospasskoye, 1 June 1804

d Berlin, 15 February 1857, aged fifty-two

He is known as the father of Russian music. Brought up in comfortable circumstances, he was always financially secure, though his health was poor. He had little formal musical training, but delighted in the company of other musicians. On leaving school in 1822 he resisted his father's pressure to enter the foreign service, preferring to be a musical dilettante in the drawing-rooms of St Petersburg. He travelled a lot, worked from 1824 to 1828 in the Ministry of Communications, which was no onerous task, but otherwise enjoyed a frivolous life. His interest in exotic places and their folk-music infected his writings, which became something of a model for future Russian composers.

1822 (18)

Variations on a Theme of Mozart for piano

1826 (22)

Memorial Cantata

Pathétique Trio, for piano, clarinet and bassoon, or piano, violin and cello (1824-7)

1830 (26)

String Quartet in F major

1833-4 (29-30)

Sextet for piano and strings

1836 (32)

A Life for the Tsar, opera (called Ivan Susanin in Russia)

The Moldavian Gipsy, incidental music

1839 (35)

Valse-fantaisie, for orchestra (revised 1856)

1840 (36)

Farewell to Petersburg, song cycle

1842 (38)

Russlan and Ludmilla, opera

1845 (41)

Spanish Overture No 1 Jota Aragonesa

1847 (43)

Greeting to the Fatherland, for piano

1848 (44)

Wedding Song (Kamarinskaya), fantasia for orchestra

Glinka also composed many piano pieces and songs.