Slava! - BHI6100022 | Musica

When Mstislav Rostropovich ("Slava" to his friends) invited Leonard Bernstein to help him launch his inaugural concerts as Music Director of the National Symphony Orchestra, he also asked him to write a rousing new opening piece for the festivities. This Overture is the result, and the world premiere took place on October 11, 1977 with Rostropovich conducting his orchestra at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.
The first theme of Slava is a vaudevillian razz-ma-tazz tune filled with side-slipping modulations and sliding trombones. Theme two, which prominently features the electric guitar, is a canonic tune in 7/8 time. A very brief kind of development section follows, after which the two themes recur in reverse order. Near the end they are combined with a quotation from the "Coronation Scene" of Moussorgsky's Boris Goudonov, where the chorus sings the Russian word Slava! meaning "Glory!" In this way, of course, the composer is paying an extra four-bar homage to his friend Slava Rostropovich, to whom this Overture is fondly dedicated.