Overture: Prince Igor

completed and orchestrated by Alexander Glazunov (1865 -1936)

Borodin never actually wrote an overture for Prince Igor. So much of the opera remained to be written, even after eighteen years of work on it, that when he applied himself to it for the last time at the beginning of 1887 the overture was not a priority. The opera was still far from finished when he died (at a fancy-dress ball) a few weeks later. Apparently, however, Alexander Glazunov - who was called in by Rimsky-Korsakov to help him with the task of completing Prince Igor - had heard Borodin extemporise an overture at the piano and, according to one account, his memory of what he heard was the basis of what we now know as the Prince Igor Overture. According to another account, Glazunov compiled it himself from whatever themes in the opera seemed to be the most appropriate.

In the end, it doesn’t matter exactly how the overture came to assume its present form. It is an inspired piece of work, colourfully orchestrated and so resourcefully constructed as to make the best of both the musical worlds represented in Borodin’s score - the Slavonic material associated with the Russians led by Prince Igor and the exotic material associated with their Polovtsian enemies led by Khan Konchak (the “Polovtsian Dances” in Act 2 are a familiar example of the latter kind). The Overture begins with the brooding music preceding the aria sung by Igor in Polovtsian captivity in Act 2 but goes on from there, by way of a fanfare bouncing vigorously round the brass section, to one of the most exhilarating of the Polovtsian tunes, first on violins and then on clarinet. The contrastingly lyrical theme introduced in an expansive horn solo comes from the captive Igor’s Act 2 aria where he expresses his longing for his wife Yaroslovna. One of Borodin’s most appealing melodies, it is recalled later in a slightly different form on cellos before it is propelled towards the brilliantly conclusive ending.

completed and orchestrated by Alexander Glazunov (1865 -1936)

Borodin never actually wrote an overture for Prince Igor. So much of the opera remained to be written, even after eighteen years of work on it, that when he applied himself to it for the last time at the beginning of 1887 the overture was not a priority. The opera was still far from finished when he died (at a fancy-dress ball) a few weeks later. Apparently, however, Alexander Glazunov - who was called in by Rimsky-Korsakov to help him with the task of completing Prince Igor - had heard Borodin extemporise an overture at the piano and, according to one account, his memory of what he heard was the basis of what we now know as the Prince Igor Overture. According to another account, Glazunov compiled it himself from whatever themes in the opera seemed to be the most appropriate.

In the end, it doesn’t matter exactly how the overture came to assume its present form. It is an inspired piece of work, colourfully orchestrated and so resourcefully constructed as to make the best of both the musical worlds represented in Borodin’s score - the Slavonic material associated with the Russians led by Prince Igor and the exotic material associated with their Polovtsian enemies led by Khan Konchak (the “Polovtsian Dances” in Act 2 are a familiar example of the latter kind). The Overture begins with the brooding music preceding the aria sung by Igor in Polovtsian captivity in Act 2 but goes on from there, by way of a fanfare bouncing vigorously round the brass section, to one of the most exhilarating of the Polovtsian tunes, first on violins and then on clarinet. The contrastingly lyrical melody introduced in an expansive horn solo comes from the captive Igor’s Act 2 aria where he expresses his longing for his wife Yaroslovna. Structurally, it acts as a kind of second subject, eventually reappearing in a slightly different form on cellos before it is propelled towards the brilliantly conclusive ending.