Symphony No. 7
Pastoral
A sunny, serene symphony that looks back to Beethoven's Sixth, radiating warmth and contentment rather than drama, from a period when Glazunov's output was slowing under his teaching duties.
Completed in 1902 and dedicated to his patron Mitrofan Belyayev, the Seventh earns its Pastoral nickname through its bright F major key and its untroubled, open-air character. The reference to Beethoven's Sixth, also a Pastoral in F, is deliberate, though Glazunov's music follows its own path from there. The mood is genial and unhurried, more concerned with beauty and repose than with struggle or resolution.
By this point Glazunov was increasingly occupied with his responsibilities at the St. Petersburg Conservatory, where he would soon become director, and his rate of composition was beginning to slow. The Seventh has the feeling of a composer at ease, drawing on long-practiced craft rather than restless invention.
The symphony is laid out in four movements, with an Andante of real warmth and a lively scherzo. The orchestration is characteristically clear and warm, favouring the woodwinds and horns that suit its rural, contented tone. It sounds settled and content, a mature work that seeks pleasure rather than confrontation, closer to a summer landscape than to a dramatic narrative.
Movements
Recordings coming soon
The individual movements will be uploaded here.