Reinhold Glière (1875-1956); RUS

Reinhold Glière (1875–1956) was born in Kyiv into a family of instrument makers and studied violin before entering the Moscow Conservatory, where his teachers included Sergei Taneyev, Anton Arensky, and Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov. After graduation he established himself as a composer, conductor, and teacher; among his private pupils were the young Sergei Prokofiev and Nikolai Myaskovsky. Glière later taught at the Kyiv Conservatory and from 1920 at the Moscow Conservatory. Unlike many Russian composers of his generation, he remained in the Soviet Union after the Revolution and maintained an eminent official position throughout the Stalin era, receiving numerous state honors.

Glière retained a richly Romantic musical language while incorporating Russian and, at times, regional folk materials into large, colorfully orchestrated forms. His monumental Symphony No. 3, “Ilya Muromets” is an expansive musical depiction of the legendary Russian hero, while the ballet The Red Poppy became one of the best-known Soviet theatrical works of its period and includes the famous “Russian Sailors’ Dance.” His concertos include important works for harp, cello, and coloratura soprano, the last an unusual wordless vocal concerto. Glière’s craftsmanship and melodic generosity linked the Russian late-Romantic tradition of Rimsky-Korsakov and Glazunov with Soviet musical culture.

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Read biography at allmusic.com.