Alexander Glazunov's brilliant Stenka Razin was one of the 20-year old composer's first successes. The work is a 16-minute tone poem in a style reminiscent of Tchaikovsky and Borodin; it was written, in fact, as a memorial to the latter. Stenka (the diminutive of Stepan) Razin was the leader of the Don Cossacks who rebelled against the ruling landowner during the reign of a weak czar. He was ultimately captured and executed, and quickly passed into legend, inspiring a body of enduring folk and epic literature. Glazunov's musical depiction is based on one such account, in which the hero has captured a Persian princess, along with other plunder, and sailed back to Russia. His servants and fellow fighters chide him for "going soft"; the young woman, they say, has dulled the fight in him. To prove them wrong, he offers Mother Volga "neither gold nor silver, but the most precious of all my possessions," throws the princess into the wide river, and leads his men into battle anew. The music is largely based on the well-known folk song "Song of the Volga Boatmen"; a contrasting "Persian" theme for clarinet represents the princess.



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