Reinhold Glière: Mazurka op. 29 No. 1 in B minor (with score)

Performed by Christian Dillig (piano)

This Mazurka is the first of 3 Mazurkas for piano op. 29 by Reinhold Glière (1875 - 1956). Mazurkas, originally Polish dances in 3/4 time, have fallen somewhat out of fashion as a genre today. Yet they were once super trendy. Mazurkas were not only written in great abundance as light music. Serious Romantic composers after Frederic Chopin and Mikhail Glinka also devoted themselves to them in large numbers.

Reinhold Glière stands in the tradition of these two composers and especially in the tradition of Glinka, who wanted to create Russian national music. It was not only the so-called Mighty Five (Mili Balakirev, Alexander Borodin, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Modest Mussorgsky and Cesar Cui) who were committed to this idea, but also Reinhold Glière later on. In a broader sense, it was not only about music that, according to today's border situation, concerns the Russian people or the Russian state, but also the music of the multi-ethnic empire under the Russian tsar, which today has disintegrated into many parts, some of which are unfortunately hostile to each other. In a broader sense, elements of Slavic peoples were also incorporated here, including the Poles. Gliere himself was a native Ukrainian from Kiev and of German origin.

I have already recorded some of Gliere's music: The complete Album for Youth op. 31 in 12 parts,
as well as his last piano piece Melody.
Incidentally, there is another mazurka in the album for young people:

I have also dedicated a separate playlist with mazurkas to the now neglected genre of the mazurka:

#Gliére #mazurka #score