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

Title	Release
(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
(121) A Life for the Tsar (Ivan Susanin; Zhizn' za tsarya), opera, G. xii
A voice from the other world (Golos s togo svera), song for voice & piano, G. x100	1996
(5) Adèle (Adel'), song for voice & piano, G. x316	2009
(4) Ah, my sweetheart, thou art a beautiful maiden (Akh tï, duschecka), song for voice & piano, G. x18 W	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
(3) Barcarolle, song for voice & piano (A Farewell to St. Petersburg No. 8), G. x240	2009
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 W	2005
(32) Capriccio brillante on the Jota Aragonesa (Spanish Overture No. 1), for orchestra, G. ii3
(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
(5) Declaration (Priznaniye), song for voice & piano, G. x280	2009
(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
(16) Doubt (Someniye), song for voice & piano, G. x176	2009
(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	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
(6) I Am Here, Inezilla (Ya zdes', Inezil'ya: Spanish Romance), song for voice & piano, G. x161	2009
(2) I had but recognized you (Tol'ko uznal ya tebya), song for voice & piano, G. x159	2009
I love you, dear rose (Lyublyu tebya, milaya roza), song for voice & piano, G. x281	2003
(19) I recall that wonderful moment (Ya pomnyu chudnoye mgnoven'ye), song for voice & piano, G. x201	2009

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