Alexander Glazunov

Glazunov was sixteen years old when his First Symphony was played in Saint Petersburg. Balakirev had taken the boy to Rimsky-Korsakov, who taught him privately; the timber merchant and patron Belyayev built a concert series and a publishing house partly around him. The mature work — eight completed symphonies, the ballets Raymonda and The Seasons, the Violin Concerto in A minor, the late Saxophone Concerto of 1934, seven string quartets and a substantial body of piano writing — includes orchestral, stage and chamber music. He taught at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory from 1899 and directed it from 1905, through years in which he helped his students; the young Shostakovich was among those he sheltered. He left Russia in 1928 for a conducting tour and settled in Paris, where he died in 1936. He studied Tchaikovsky's scores closely and was valued in return by the older composer.