History
Although invented in the early 1840s, the saxophone was still fairly new and unfamiliar in Glazunov's day; it remained untouched for a long time as it was considered "middle class". However, Glazunov was enthralled by the sound of the saxophone: a new timbre in the musical world.
The work premiered in Nyköping, Sweden, on 25 November 1934, with Sigurd Raschèr, a famous German saxophonist, as soloist. It is Raschèr who is credited for bringing about the concerto's composition. He hounded Glazunov for a saxophone concerto, so much so that the composer wrote to a colleague that he had started the piece in March "under the influences of attacks rather than requests from the Danish (sic) saxophonist named Sigurd Rascher". He completed the work in June 1934.
Glazunov almost certainly never heard his Saxophone Concerto publicly performed, as the first Paris performance of the work did not occur until after his death. He made no mention in his letters of any collaboration with another composer on the concerto. However, in 1936, the publishing company made an addition to the piano reduction: they added A. Petiot as a second composer.
Read more about this topic: Saxophone Concerto (Glazunov)
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“As History stands, it is a sort of Chinese Play, without end and without lesson.”
—Henry Brooks Adams (1838–1918)
“Culture, the acquainting ourselves with the best that has been known and said in the world, and thus with the history of the human spirit.”
—Matthew Arnold (1822–1888)
“The history of philosophy is to a great extent that of a certain clash of human temperaments.”
—William James (1842–1910)