Music with Ease > Classical Music > Concert Guide: Nationalist Era > Overture, "Solennelle" - Glazunov

Unlike most of Glazunov’s concept pieces, the overture "Solennelle" has no program. It was composed in 1901, and at the time of its first performance in that year was entitled a "Festival Overture," and was evidently intended as a fitting prelude for any pageant. It opens, like others of Glazunov’s compositions, with a resonant proclamation of chords in the strings and brasses, after which the woodwinds and horns enter with a theme which is extended soon to the violins, answered by a short phrase in the violas, cellos, and bassoon. The introduction closes, as it opened, with vigorous chords. The main section begins with a melodious theme in the violins, closed by the woodwinds. This is followed by the second theme, which subsequently is taken by the clarinets with string accompaniment and fully elaborated. The first theme now returns, and is worked up with subsidiary passages from the introduction. The elaboration of all this material and the Coda close the overture.