International Music Company Concerto in B flat major (with Cadenza), Opus 91 - Gliere/Polekh - Horn/Piano - Sheet Music

Composer: Reinhold Gliere
Editor/Cadenza: Valery Polekh
Format: Sheet Music
Instrumentation: Horn and Piano

Preface
Reinhold Moritzevich Gliere (1875-1956), one of the leading Russian composers of the twentieth century was born in Kiev. His musical training commenced in that city and already at an early age he showed unusual gifts for composition. Before reaching nineteen years of age he had to his credit numerous pieces for Piano, Cello, two String Quartets and an Overture for Orchestra.

In 1894 he came to Moscow where he entered the Imperial Conservatory. There he studied violin with Sevcik and Hrimaly, and theory and composition with Arensky, Ippolitov-Ivanov, and Taneev. He remained at the Conservatory for six years, during which period his first String Sextet, String Quartet in A, String Octet and the First Symphony were composed. He graduated in 1900 with honours, having been awarded a gold medal.

Soon upon graduating from the Conservatory Gliere began teaching composition, and in 1902 among his eminent pupils were Myaskovsky, then twenty, and Prokofiev, then eleven years old.

Gliere's creative output comprises a great variety of works -- many songs, pieces for piano solo, piano duets, two pianos, string instruments, chamber music, operas, ballets, symphonies and concerti. His monumental work, the Symphony No. 3, subtitled "Ilya Mourometz", for which he is best known in the U.S.A., was composed in 1909.

The present concerto, written toward the end of 1940, combines some of the features so characteristic of Gliere as a composer -- broad lyricism and gay cheerfulness. It is extremely effective for the Horn. The composer dedicated it to the foremost Russian Horn soloist of his time, Valery Polekh, who edited it and wrote for it a cadenza.

-- Waldo Lyman