Alexander Konstantinovich Glazunov was born in 1865 and showed remarkable musical talent from an early age, which was particularly encouraged by his teacher Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. He was accepted into the circle of composers around the music-loving entrepreneur and later music publisher Mitrofan Petrovich Beliayev, who published Glazunov's 1st Symphony and supported him for the rest of his life. Glasunow admired composers such as Brahms and his close friend Tchaikovsky. In particular, the fusion of Russian music with Western European stylistic elements in Tchaikovsky's compositions had a noticeable influence on Glasunow's own style of writing. He himself managed to reconcile the rival currents of "national Russian" and Western-oriented musical culture. Glasunow was a master of classical composition techniques and placed great value on traditional musical forms. Initially as a teacher and from 1905 as director of the St. Petersburg Conservatory, he experienced and taught a new generation of young composers. His students included, for example, Dmitri Shostakovich and Sergei Prokofiev. However, while this aspiring generation conquered the music world with a new, partly experimental sound language, Glasunow remained true to his traditionally influenced musical style. Many of his works were inspired by encounters with famous musicians and other artists. CORTÈGE SOLENNEL op. 50 was written in 1894 for the 70th birthday and 50th anniversary of the distinguished music and art critic Vladimir Stasov. This "Solemn Procession" has an unmistakably Russian sound and traditional compositional techniques. Leontij Dunaev has skilfully transferred Glasunov's musical handwriting to the wind orchestra and created an impressive arrangement.
