Written prior to his first symphony sometime around 1881 as a teenager the themes were taken from a series of collected melodies (Melodies populaires de Grece et d’Orient) published by Louis Bourgault-Doucoudray of material he collected during a journey through Greece in 1874 with the premiere being conducted by Anton Rubenstein. It is another example of the fascination of exploring exotic themes from other countries like Prince Igor, Scheherazade, or Islamey. From very early on in his composing career Glazunov had already developed his sound which offers wonderful arrangements and orchestrations and a unique Russian sound unlike anyone else.

A precocious pupil of Rimsky-Korsakov, Glazunov was able to add to a post-nationalist synthesis in Russian music, combining national inspiration with sound compositional technique. His Fantasy The Sea is programmatic, a homage to Wagner, and the Oriental Rhapsody follows an even more detailed and exotic narrative scheme.

These are both delightful symphonies, even if the Eight is rather thickly scored. However, Alexander Anissimov does his best to make the textures as clear and well ventilated as possible, and pays great attention to details of dynamics and balance. Try the Scherzo of the Fifth Symphony and you will find much lightness of touch and a greater transparency than is often encountered in records of these works. Strongly recommended. –Penguin Guide

This disc opens with the seldom-heard Variations on a Russian Theme that five composers wrote to honor the conductor Nikolai Galkin. It is an attractive theme that is wittily scored by the five. Only Sokolov took the task seriously, but all five provided a rousing work.

With 6 Anissimov is back in peak form and certainly beats out the other Russian contenders for the title…Anissimov and his Moscow players give an excellent account of themselves, and the engineers have obliged with truly room-filling volume, taking care to bring out the deep bass and rich, dark coloring so important for a full appreciation of the score. There's nothing subtle about the playing — especially the trenchant low brass — but then save for the central sections there's not much that's subtle about the music either, and Anissimov's exuberant embrace of the outer movements is immensely satisfying.

lnspired by the lyrical style of Tchaikovsky, the melodic and, at times, epic Symphony No. 3 is Glazunov’s first major work of his maturity and one of his most popular. Started 26 years before his death, but never completed, the single movement Symphony No. 9 is noteworthy for a lush, romantic melody which undergoes a transformation reminiscent of Elgar.

Alexander Glazunov was a committed romanticist and a master orchestrator. Both these qualities are at the forefront in this release. The melodies are rich and moving, with a hint of melancholy; the soloist and orchestra are well balanced, the cello never buried in a wash of orchestral sound; and structure of these single movement works renders them complete and satisfying.

The Song of Destiny is a dramatic overture dating from 1907 and in it and the Two Preludes on this disc Glazunov commands attention strongly. The Song uses the famous Fate theme from Beethoven's Fifth Symphony and in a spirit of well-orchestrated gloom bites and strikes outwards and upwards. The atmosphere is very strong indeed and a far from obviously superior soul-mate would be Rachmaninov's Isle of the Dead. One of his most powerful scores lit by Rimskian flashes.

The Seasons was written for the Russian Imperial Ballet and first produced at the Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg in February 1900 with choreography by Marius Petipa. There is no particular story to the ballet, which offers a series of tableaux, one for each of the four seasons, set to music that seems to continue the tradition established in the three ballets of Tchaikovsky.

The first symphony is the work of a sixteen year old and for all its winsome linguistic indebtedness to Balakirev and Borodin it has an independent life of its own. With those Russian voices can also be heard Brahms. The scherzo on the other hand is awash with Polovtsi intoxication while the third movement andante runs Rachmaninov very close to one of his finest romantic conceptions.

There are some attractive ideas in Spring (Vesna), a charming work, refined and transparent in its orchestration, playing on birdsong and building to a sensuous climax. The more familiar Concert Waltzes contain some of Glazunov’s most winning tunes. The novelty most likely to excite curiosity here is Glazunov’s music for Oscar Wilde’s Salomé, with Salome’s dance leading to a Polovtsian climax. Salome sheds her veils in a most unerotic fashion. But this cannot be blamed on the conductor, and generally there are warm, idiomatic performances, richly recorded.

Performed and recorded as handsomely, sympathetically, and idiomatically as on this Naxos release. The disc deserves a high recommendation.

[Konstantin Krimets] provides inspired leadership that prevents Glazunov's music from becoming too saccharine….Even at full price I would recommend this issue.

Volume three is incidental music from a play called The King of the Jews. Recorded only twice, the second time by Polyansky… But it’s brilliant. This is atmospheric, at times quite engaging, and an excellent example of the art of incidental music—all the more impressive considering the scarcity of models, Russian or otherwise. The introduction is a very nicely crafted exercise in subtle variation of scale, rather than of theme. It is, like much of the work, introspective, often stately, and a little mournful—how could it not be given the subject matter? But the piece as a whole is punctuated with occasional outbursts of grandeur—The Trumpets of the Levites, Entr’acte to Act III, Scene 2 and the Syrian Dance are all dramatic and/or lively enough to engage even the most humorless listener.