Overture in D major - Mikhail Glinka

Musica Viva Ensemble conducted by Alexander Rudin.

I - Presto: 0:00

Glinka's Overture in D major was composed circa 1822-6, being his first known orchestral work while he had an undemanding job in the civil service in St. Petersburg. The overture was never published during Glinka's lifetime, and remained in manuscript among his posthumous papers. It was not until 1955, almost a century after the composer's death, that it was edited and published in Moscow as part of the first volume of the Glinka Complete Edition.

At the time, Glinka became a musical dilettante and came under the influence of Charles Mayer, a former pupil of John Field who had attracted a large following of music students in the Russian capital. Mayer soon befriended the talented young man and encouraged him to compose works and submit them to his critique. It was at this time that Glinka wrote the two overtures in D major and G minor, the most substantial pieces of the period. These works show the composer's musical development in large forms as well as early preoccupations, such as ornamental counterpoint. The language employed here is largely classical and reminiscent of Cherubini, with no use of Russian elements yet.

Despite being considered the father of Russian classical music, Glinka was almost completely self-taught, having only taken some piano lessons from his governess and Irish virtuoso John Field. His most important musical experiences came from two quite contradictory quarters: his work with his uncle's serf orchestra, near the family's country estate in Novospasskoye, and his 1823 tour of the Caucasus, ostensibly to cure his many imaginary illnesses, but more importantly to experience the indigenous music and dances of the local Circassian population. From the latter he obtained a lifelong fondness for folk subjects and characters, and from the former he gained a natural expertise in handling the orchestra, an ability which even his detractors have had to concede.

But the importance of his uncle's serf orchestra went beyond that, for they played a rather impressive repertoire that came to serve as the bedrock of Glinka's compositional technique. Overtures by Cherubini and Méhul loomed large in their repertoire, but so did the overtures to Mozart's great operas (less Abduction and Così fan tutte) and Beethoven's Fidelio. Glinka's task, while still a teenager, was to train the peasants to play their parts note-perfectly over a period of weeks. In this way he gained not only a full overview of the music's orchestration, but also a detailed grasp of its form and workmanship. It was an invaluable experience and one comparable, in its way, to Wagner's writing out of the score of Beethoven's Ninth at roughly the same age.

The overture is structured in sonata form. It begins with a rhythmic and lively main theme in D major, beginning in piano on strings before passing to forte in full orchestra. The second theme is more melodic and graceful in tone, with prominence given to woodwinds. It is followed by a dance-like third theme presented between woods and strings. The ensuing concise development is focused on the main theme, which is subjected to several quick modulations. The material is then recapitulated, and the overture ends with a vigorous coda.

Picture: "View of the Palace Embankment from the Peter and Paul Fortress" (1794) by Russian painter Fyodor Alekseyev.

Musical analysis written by myself. Sources: https://tinyurl.com/26fh9f9g and https://tinyurl.com/2bys5psl

Unfortunately, the score is not available.