Written at the same time as the extremely accomplished First Symphony, this is big music indeed for a seventeen-year-old composer. Like its predecessor, the Overture No. 1 on Greek Themes, it owes its thematic inspiration to a collection of music made by the French composer Louis Albert Bourgault-Ducoudray, who was instrumental in arranging the increased performances of Russian music in Paris. Dedicated to Balakirev, who conducted the first performance, the Overture No. 2 shows Glazunov's melodic inspiration and mastery of orchestral textures at its early height.

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