Artist Info

  • Name: Mikhail Glinka
  • Birthday: 06/01/1804
  • Birth Place: Novospasskoye, Smolensk, Russia
  • Died: 02/15/1857
  • Place of Death: Berlin, Germany
  • Country: Russia
  • Period: Romantic
  • Genre: Classical

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Works & Performances

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Title Release
  • (22) Trio pathétique, for clarinet (or violin), bassoon (or cello) & piano in D minor, G. iv173
  • 1986
  •  I had but recognized you (Tol'ko uznal ya tebya), song for voice & piano, G. x159
  • (2) String Quartet (No. 2) in F major, G. iii125
  • 1979
  •  String Quartet (No. 1) in D major, G. iii67 (incomplete)
  • 1979
  • (2) "I Love You" was your assurance (Ya lyublyu, tï mne tverdila), song for voice and piano, G. x24
  • (11) A Farewell to St. Petersburg (Proshchaniye s Peterburgom), song cycle (12) for voice & piano, G. x206
  • 1993
  •  A Greeting To My Native Land (Privet otchizne), suite (4) for piano, G. vi220
  • 1998
  • (113) A Life for the Tsar (Ivan Susanin; Zhizn' za tsarya), opera, G. xii
  • 1957
  •  A voice from the other world (Golos s togo svera), song for voice & piano, G. x100
  • 1996
  • (4) Adèle (Adel'), song for voice & piano, G. x316
  • 1996
  • (4) Ah, my sweetheart, thou art a beautiful maiden (Akh tï, duschecka), song for voice & piano, G. x18 WA
  • 1971
  •  Ah, rammenta, o bella Irene, canzonetta for voice & piano (Canzonette italiane No. 1), G. x73
  • 1996
  • (3) Alla cetra, canzonetta for voice & piano (Canzonette italiane No. 2), G. x76
  • 1996
  • (3) Andante cantabile & rondo, for orchestra, G. i3
  • 1990
  • (5) Barcarolle, for piano in G major (A Greeting to My Native Land No. 2), G. vi225
  • 1994
  • (2) Barcarolle, song for voice & piano (A Farewell to St. Petersburg No. 8), G. x240
  • 1994
  •  Bitter, bitter it is for me (Gor'kom gor'ko mne), song for voice & piano, G. x28
  • 1996
  • (3) Bolero, for piano in D minor, G. vi208
  • 1993
  • (2) Bolero, song for voice & piano (A Farewell to St. Petersburg No. 3), G. x211
  • 1995
  • (3) Call her not heavenly (Ne nazivay yeyo nebesnoy), for voice & piano, G. x151
  • 1996
  •  Canzonette italiane (2), canzonettas for voice & piano, G. x73
  • 1999
  •  Capriccio brillante on Russian themes, for piano, 4 hands in A major, G. v19
  • 2005
  • (31) Capriccio brillante on the Jota Aragonesa (Spanish Overture No. 1), for orchestra, G. ii3
  • 1958
  • (7) Cherubim's Song (Kheruvimskaya), for chorus in C major
  • 1992
  •  Consolation (Utesheniye), song for voice & piano, G. x14
  • 1996
  • (2) Contredanses (5), for piano, G. vi166
  • 1996
  •  Conversation (Rozmowa), song for voice & piano, G. x309
  • 2003
  •  Cotillon, for piano in B flat major, G. vi67
  • 1998
  • (5) Cradle Song (Kolïbel'naya pesnya), for voice & piano (A Farewell to St. Petersburg No. 5), G. x220
  • 1962
  •  Dance, for oboe, cello & orchestra
  • 1992
  •  Dance, for violin & orchestra
  • 1992
  • (2) Darling (Milochka), song for voice & piano, G. x287
  • 1943
  • (4) Declaration (Priznaniye), song for voice & piano, G. x280
  • (4) Detskaya Polka (Children's Polka), for piano in B flat major, G. vi257
  • (7) Divertimento brillante on themes from Bellini's La Sonnambula, for piano, 2 violins, viola, cello & double bass, G. iv29
  • 1994
  •  Do not tempt me needlessly (Ne iskushay menya bez nuzhdï), elegy for 2 voices & piano, G. ix23
  • 2003
  • (14) Do not tempt me needlessly (Ne iskushay menya bez nuzhdï), elegy for voice & piano, G. x2
  • 1995
  • (14) Doubt (Someniye), song for voice & piano, G. x176 WA
  • 1971
  • (6) Doubt (Someniye), song for voice, harp & violin, G. ix108
  • 1999
  •  Farewell Waltz (Proschal'nïy val's), for piano in G major, G. vi117
  • 1998
  • (5) Fugues (3), for piano (or organ), G. vi147
  • (2) Galopade, for piano in E flat major, G. vi174
  • 1996
  • (8) Gran sestetto originale, for piano & string quintet in E flat major, G. iv81
  • (2) Grande valse, for piano in G major, G. vi175
  • 1994
  •  Grandfather, the maids once told me (Dedushka, devitsï raz mne govorili), song for voice & piano, G. x89
  • 1962
  • (2) Hebrew Song (Yecreyskaya pesnya), song for voice & piano (A Farewell to St. Petersburg No. 3), G. x209 WA
  • 1995
  •  Ho perduto, il mio tesoro, song for voice & piano, G. x47
  • 1999
  • (13) How sweet it is to be with you (Kak sladko s toboyu mne bït'), for voice & piano, G. x277
  • 1995
  • (5) I Am Here, Inezilla (Ya zdes', Inezil'ya: Spanish Romance), song for voice & piano, G. x161
  • 1995
  •  I love you, dear rose (Lyublyu tebya, milaya roza), song for voice & piano, G. x281
  • 2003

    Individual Bio

    A well-educated child of privilege, Glinka became a fervent Russian nationalist. He is considered the father of Russian music, and exerted a significant influence on such great later composers as Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, and Stravinsky.

    Glinka took piano, violin, and voice lessons, but he did not study music or composition seriously as a youth. His first job was as a government official, but, realizing how strongly he was drawn to music, he left to pursue both a general and a musical education. He studied for a time in Italy and spent the year 1833 studying composition in Berlin. He had composed some works during and prior to this time, but these were still derivative of prevailing Western European styles, and the year in Berlin only reinforced the non-Russian influences he felt.

    Returning to Russia, he discovered the works of writers such as Pushkin and Gogol, who uncovered for him the wealth and depth of his Russian cultural heritage. Moved, he wrote his seminal, truly Russian work, A Life for the Tsar. It recounts how villainous Poles, in 1613, attempted to capture the Tsar and how a young hero, Ivan Sussanin, led the pursuing Poles on a wild goose chase at the ultimate cost of his life. The work premiered in 1836 and was an immediate success. It intermingled Russian and Polish folk tunes with Italian-style operatic passages and even anticipated Wagner's use of the leitmotif by employing recurring themes identified with specific characters. It also marked a new approach to orchestration in which the orchestra was essentially a member of the cast, not merely background accompaniment for the singers.

    The year 1842 saw the premiere of Glinka's second great Russian opera, Ruslan and Lyudmila. It was not as immediately successful as A Life for the Tsar, but ultimately was more influential. It contained Persian influences and made use of a seven-step whole-tone scale for the first time in European music.

    His influence upon the Russian composers who followed him was immense; specifically he inspired Mily Balakirev, who gathered four other young Russian composers around him to form the so-called "Mighty Handful," and extended Glinka's effort to foster Russian nationalism in music and the arts in general. ~ Michael Morrison, All Music Guide