(Me’-le Al-yek-sa’-ye-vich Ba-la’-ke-ref) 1837–1910 Russian composer Balakirev’s early piano fantasy on Glinka’s A Life for the Tsar won Glinka’s approval in 1855 and in appreciation Glinka gave Balakirev two Spanish melodies, later reworked in the Spanish Serenade. Balakirev performed Beethoven’s ‘Emperor’ Concerto before the Tsar, a highlight of a virtuoso career that culminated with his Chopin Anniversary recital in Warsaw ...
(A-lex-an’-der Bô-ro-den’) 1833–87 Russian composer Borodin joined Balakirev’s circle known as ‘The Five’ while an army doctor in 1861. He later became a professor of chemistry and founded a school of medicine for women in St Petersburg, yet in his spare time composed a highly polished, if small, output. His melodic style draws on folk music reworked into compelling ...
the radical nationalism of ‘The Five’. Rubinstein founded the Russian Music Society and also composed several ‘Russian’ works, such as the overture Ivan the Terrible, first given by Balakirev, among a large output of 20 operas, six symphonies and piano works, including the Melody in F (1852). His five piano concertos were very popular and strongly ...
Scriabin. During a virtuoso career he held the coveted positions of Director of the Russian Choral Society (1888–95), council member of the School of Church Music (1889–93) and successor to Balakirev as Director of the Imperial Chapel in St Petersburg (1894–1901). Best known are his Piano Trio in D minor, with its Tchaikovskian slow movement, and the Chopinesque Piano ...
permeating the music, which is nevertheless built on the Western tradition. In creating works that had a distinctive Russian flavour, he was a profound influence on Mily Alexeyevich Balakirev (1837–1910) and other members of ‘The Five’, as well as Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840–93), all of whom openly acknowledged their debt to Glinka. Recommended Recording: Ruslan and Ludmilla, soloists ...
Around this time he met Borodin, who was impressed by Mussorgsky’s talent and creativity. In 1857 Mussorgsky also encountered Cui, Rimsky-Korsakov and another Russian composer, Mily Alexeyevich Balakirev (1837–1910). Together with Borodin, these four made up what the champion of Russian national music, Vladimir Stasov (1824–1906), called the ‘Mighty Handful’ of composers (or ‘The Five’), who ...
Born to a land-owning family, he joined the army in 1856, where he encountered Borodin, then a military doctor, and Cui, who introduced him to Balakirev, with whom he studied. In 1858 he resigned to pursue a musical career, but the Tsar’s emancipation of the serfs in 1861 obliged him to contribute to the ...
(Ni’-ku-li Rim’-ske Kôr’-sa-kôf) 1844–1908 Russian composer Born to a land-owning family, Rimsky-Korsakov served in the Russian navy and composed the first ‘Russian’ symphony while on duty off Gravesend. He joined Balakirev’s circle, ‘The Five’, in 1861 and following the success of Sadko (1867), a tone-poem about the sea, was appointed professor at the new St Petersburg Conservatory. In addition ...
to Russian opera, Rimsky-Korsakov’s stage works have never found a solid place in the mainstream international repertoire. As a youth, Rimsky-Korsakov was encouraged and taught by Mily Alexeyevich Balakirev (1837–1910). The young composer displayed an undoubted mastery of orchestration and a keen ear for evocative harmony, which makes it all the more strange that his operas were never ...
‘Westernized’ composer at loggerheads with nationalist Russian musicians, as he is often portrayed, Tchaikovsky, through his association with many of those figures, above all their leader Balakirev, produced many works robustly Russian in spirit, especially in his early years. He then composed a series of autobiographical masterpieces leading up to the time of his disastrous ...
Ludmilla’, 1842), a synthesis seen also in the colourful Kamarinskaya (1848). Glinka’s new awareness of his Russian musical heritage was to have a profound influence on another gifted Russian, Balakirev, who in the 1850s and 1860s gathered around him a small coterie of like-minded artists eager to promote a truly Russian style. Mussorgsky and Cui, and later Rimsky-Korsakov ...
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