BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Concert Hall, Nottingham, 31 May 2024.

4✩✩✩✩ Review: William Ruff.

“Discovering Glazunov: music that delights the ear and touches the heart.”

Once a year the Nottingham Classics audience is invited to explore music which lies off the beaten track. This year BBC Radio 3 presenter Stephen Johnson steered us in the direction of Russian composer Alexander Glazunov, a man whose name is better known than his music.

Glazunov is one of those people who was born too late. He died in 1936 – but his reputation might have done better if his life had been squeezed into the previous century; instead, he found himself out on a limb as 20th century musical developments took hold. He became a cultural dinosaur in his older years - and that reputation has stuck. Sadly, he’s also best known now for the alcoholism which accompanied his decline as a teacher and conductor. If you know his pupil Rachmaninov’s 1st Symphony, you’ll have heard that it was Glazunov on the podium who ruined its first performance, leading to Rachmaninov’s nervous breakdown.

Glazunov’s greatest hit today comes from his ballet score The Seasons: mainly because the BBC use it as their theme tune for the annual Dimblely Lecture. And that’s where Friday’s concert began: with the three dances which make up Autumn. The opening Bacchanal was injected with plenty of energy and rhythmic bounce by conductor Martyn Brabbins and the BBC Philharmonic, making it sound like a work well worth getting to know in full. It’s inventive, packed with attractive melodies and glowing with vivid orchestral colour.

Stephen Johnson then joined the orchestra to introduce Glazunov’s 4th Symphony. He’s an engaging and enthusiastic presenter, someone who avoids technicalities, going for a personal approach instead. He talked about wallowing in a warm bath of gorgeous sound; told us what members of the orchestra think about playing the piece; quoted his wife listening to the symphony in the kitchen. Even the most determined Glazunov sceptics must have been won over.

The complete performance of the Symphony in the concert’s second half hugely benefited from his guided tour. Johnson’s comments about the opening long-breathed, cor anglais melody (with its atmosphere of Russia’s vast landscapes) all made perfect sense. And how Glazunov’s use of folk melodies and dance rhythms contribute to the sense of Russian melancholy. The orchestration is always richly colourful: no wonder Johnson reported that it’s a work that all sections of the BBC Philharmonic (and conductor Martyn Brabbins) really enjoy performing. The cheers which followed the performance suggested that plenty of new friends had been made for Glazunov and music which had both delighted the ear and touched the heart.

BBC Philharmonic, Martyn Brabbins (conductor), Stephen Johnson (presenter)