Glazunov’s “The Seasons” (Autumn): A Bacchanale Amid Falling Leaves

Alexander Glazunov’s allegorical one-act ballet, The Seasons, Op. 67, depicts nature’s cycle of death and rebirth. The deep frigid sleep of winter gives way to the blossoms of youth and sunshine. The ballet concludes with the abundance of autumn. It is a vibrant and celebratory bacchanale amid falling leaves. A student of Balakirev and Rimsky-Korsakov, Glazunov (1865–1936) was a Romanticist who painted with shimmering tonal colors. His symphonic ballet scores continued in …

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Three Pieces for the Beginning of Summer

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate: Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, And summer’s lease hath all too short a date: Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,  And often is his gold complexion dimm’d; And every fair from fair sometime declines, By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm’d; But thy eternal summer shall not fade  Nor lose possession …

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