Alexander Glazounov

Alexander Konstantinovich Glazunov (10 August [O.S. 29 July] 1865 – 21 March 1936) was a Russian composer, music teacher, and conductor of the late Russian Romantic period. He was director of the Saint Petersburg Conservatory between 1905 and 1928 and was instrumental in reorganizing the institute into the Petrograd Conservatory, then the Leningrad Conservatory, after the Bolshevik Revolution. He continued as head of the Conservatory until 1930, though he had left the Soviet Union in 1928 and did not return. The best-known student under his tenure during the early Soviet years was Dmitri Shostakovich.

Glazunov reconciled nationalism and cosmopolitanism in Russian music. While he was the direct successor to Mily Balakirev's nationalism, he tended more towards Alexander Borodin's epic grandeur while absorbing a number of other influences. These included Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's orchestral virtuosity, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's lyricism and Taneyev's contrapuntal skill. Younger composers such as Sergei Prokofiev and Shostakovich eventually considered his music old-fashioned, while admitting he retained an imposing reputation and was a stabilizing influence in a time of transition and turmoil.