Program Notes

Mikhail Glinka (1804-1857)
Grand Sextet for String Quartet, Bass and Piano (1832)

Notes for: August 14, 2012

Glinka is generally regarded as the father of Russian classical music. He was not only the first Russian composer to gain wide recognition outside Russia but also the inspiration and model for future Russian composers. In particular, the so-called “The Five” – Balakirev, Mussorgsky, Borodin, Cui and Rimsky Korsakov – followed Glinka’s lead in producing a distinctive Russian style of music.

The son of a wealthy retired army captain, he developed a music interest as a child when his nurse sang Russian folk songs and he heard passing peasant choirs. While his governess taught him Russian, German, French and geography, he also received instruction on the piano and violin. He then widened his musical experience when his family sent him to St. Petersburg, the capital, to study at a school for children of the nobility.

On graduation, Glinka was appointed assistant secretary of the national highway department. The work was light, allowing him to settle into the life of a musical dilettante, frequenting the city’s drawing rooms and social gatherings. To amuse the wealthy amateurs, he began to compose melancholy romances in a Russian folk style.

Glinka was a sickly man and, in 1830 at the recommendation of his physician, he decided to travel to sunny Italy. After three years studying opera writing at the Milan conservatory, he decided to return to Russia, write in a Russian manner, and do for Russian music what Donizetti and Bellini had done for Italian music. As a result, his music became a synthesis of traditional western forms and Russian folk melody and harmonic style.

Glinka is known today mainly for two operas on Russian themes and with Russian librettos – A Life for the Tsar and Russlan and Ludmilla, the latter based on a tale by his friend Alexander Pushkin, whose writings inspired so many Russian composers. The overtures are particularly popular both inside and outside Russia.

Glinka composed this Grand Sextet in 1832 while he was living in Milan and was preoccupied with writing opera. Taking in opera at La Scala as often as possible, he came under the influence of several Italian composers, in particular Donizetti. The influence of Italian opera can be felt in the melodic content and joie de vivre of the sextet.

Glinka later related that he composed the piano part of the sextet with his Italian doctor’s daughter in mind. He had been infatuated with her and, though an amateur, she was apparently a brilliant pianist with a sparkling technique. While she was a married woman and was unavailable romantically, she had a pronounced influence on the music – it sounds almost like a piano concerto.

The first movement, allegro, is in easy-to-follow sonata form. The lively first theme and its continuation establishes the prominence of the piano, while the second theme, reflecting the composer’s Italian surroundings, is ushered in by the cello. The long development gives all the instruments opportunities to play with the melodies.

The second movement, andante, opens with a long introduction for the solo piano, its calm and introspective character suggesting a Chopin nocturne. When the other instruments join in, the 6/8 rhythm suggests a barcarolle. A contrasting middle section begins as a duet for the violins, with the lower instruments later joining in.

After a return to the opening section, the third movement, allegro con spirito, is launched without pause by rumbling passages in the piano. This leads to the jubilant main theme, again with the piano prominent, followed by a middle section in the lively rhythm of a Czech polka. The vigorous main theme returns to finish the sextet.

© 2012 by Willard J. Hertz

Copyright © 2012 by Willard J. Hertz