Melody and Waltz for flute and piano, Op. 35

Reinhold Glière (1875–1956) was a Russian composer, considered a central figure in the transition from Russian Imperial Romanticism to Soviet musical realism.
Born in Kyiv (then part of the Russian Empire), Glière was the son of a master wind-instrument maker of German-Polish descent. He began violin lessons at a young age and entered the Kyiv College of Music before moving to the Moscow Conservatory in 1894. There, he studied composition under Anton Arensky, Sergei Taneyev, and Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov. These mentors instilled in him a strict adherence to classical form and polyphony.
He was a pioneer in ethnomusicology, traveling to Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan to study folk music. This research resulted in works like the opera Shah-Senem, which fused Middle Eastern melodic structures with Western symphonic techniques. He famously gave private lessons to an eleven-year-old Sergei Prokofiev and later served as the Director of the Kyiv Conservatory (1913–1920) before returning to the Moscow Conservatory as a professor. Despite the political upheavals of his time, Glière remained highly decorated, winning the Stalin Prize three times and the Glinka Prize three times.
His music is characterized by expansive lyricism, a mastery of orchestration, and a total avoidance of the "atonal" or "avant-garde" movements of the 20th century. Among his most noteworthy compositions:
Symphony No. 3 (1911), Concerto for Harp and Orchestra (1938), and Concerto for Coloratura Soprano and Orchestra (1943).