Alexander Glazunov's Candle Concerto

Alexander (Aleksandr) Glazunov's saxophone concerto, Opus 109, is a wonderful Romantic-Era piece to both listen to and to play. The piece’s adherence to counterpoint, beautiful melodies, and phenomenal orchestration make it a timeless piece that is a “must-listen” for all. The saxophone concerto was written in 1934 for Sigurd Rascher, a prominent Dutch saxophonist. Born in St. Petersburg, Russia on August 10th, 1865, Glazunov was a musician from an early age and began playing the piano at age 9. By the time Glazunov was a teenager, he had attracted the attention of the famous composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, who mentored him for the next few years. While studying under Rimsky-Korsakov, Glazunov composed his first symphony, which was later

Despite having been composed in the Modern Era, his concerto is written in a Romantic style. The Romantic Era is characterized by emotion, extremes, and a slight variation from counterpoint. This differs from the Modern Era, specifically Impressionism, which features a disregard for counterpoint and a focus on individual sounds rather than progressions. Famous composers of the Romantic Era include Mendelssohn, who is famous for his Overture and incidental music in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Beethoven, who is credited as starting the Romantic Era. In contrast, famous impressionist composers include Claude Debussy, who is known for his piano piece, Clare de Lune, and Marvel Ravel, who is renowned for his orchestral piece

The exposition of this piece continues from the beginning to bar 11, when the soloist begins. At this point there is a dramatic transition in accompaniment, which shifts from playing a melody to backgrounds in order to exaggerate the soloist, who plays a different melody than the orchestra previously played. The Allegro Moderato section continues to develop and concludes at rehearsal number 4. After a brief orchestral section, the piece develops into a fast and vibrant section, which concludes with an extremely fast chromatic scale. After the vibrance in 5-9, there is a long orchestral section which prepares the Andante. The Andante, which is in C major, cautiously speeds up. At 14, the Andante transforms and features several unique motifs. For example, from bar 108 to 111, the soloist has a series of ascending and descending triplets which slowly increase in speed. However, on the count 3 of m. 111, the tempo drastically drops back to the original tempo. Then the sequence starts again, and continues until reh.16. This sequence of triplets is not repeated in the rest of the piece and is unique to this section. After a short interlude at 16, the soloist and Andante return to their original form, with some slight tempo increases. Then, suddenly at 20, the Andante