Gliere: Symphony No. 3, 'Il'ya Muromets'

Glière completed his third symphony in 1911, choosing to base it on the legend of Il'ya Muromets, the subject of ancient Russian epic. Il'ya Muromets is described as the son of a peasant and appears in a number of early Russian poems, to be identified, it is thought, with the pagan god Pyerun, but eventually absorbed into Christian tradition. One group of Russian epics, or byliny, is concerned with the older heroes or bogatyri, of which Il'ya Muromets and Svyatogor are among the most important. The former, remarkable among other things as the son of a peasant, was weak, without the use of his legs, for the first 33 years of his life, but strength came to him by a miracle, when two passing travellers, wandering pilgrims, gave him a draught of honey. His exploits in the service of Vladimir Fair Sun, to be identified either with the historical St. Vladimir, the first Christian ruler of Kiev, or with a later prince, Vladimir Monomakh, were remarkable in wars against pagan enemies, much assisted, in one century or the other, by a horse that could fly over the land. Of uncertain temper, in anger he once destroyed the domes and spires of the churches of Kiev, but when death approached he built a cathedral in Kiev and when he died his body was turned to stone, and so remains to this day, as the epics tell us.