Rimsky-korsakov: Sheherazade / The Tale Of Tsar Saltan

Description

Nikolay Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov (1844 - 1908)Sheherazade, Symphonic Suite, Op. 35 The Tale of Tsar Saltan, Musical Pictures, Op. 57Nikolay Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov originally intended a navalcareer, following the example of his elder brother. He showed some musical ability even asa very small child, but at the age of 14 he entered the Naval Cadet College in St.Petersburg in pursuit of a more immediately attractive ambition. The city, in any case,offered musical opportunities. He continued piano lessons, but, more important than this,he was able to enjoy the opera and attend his first concerts.It was in 1861, the year before he completed his course at theNaval College, that Rimsky-Korsakov met Balakirev, a musician who was to become animportant influence on him, as he was on the young army officers Mussorgsky and Cui, whoalready formed part of his circle. The meeting had a far-reaching effect onRimsky-Korsakov's career, although in 1862 he set sail as a midshipman on a cruise thatwas to keep him away from Russia for the next two and a half years.On his return in 1865 Rimsky-Korsakov fell again under theinfluence of Balakirev. On shore there was more time for music and the encouragement heneeded for a serious application to music that resulted in compositions in which he showedhis early ability as an orchestrator and his defb1ess in the use of Russian themes, a giftthat Balakirev did much to encourage as part of his campaign to create a truly Russianform of music. In 1871 he took a position as professor of instrumentation and compositionat St. Petersburg Conservatory and the following year he resigned his commission in thenavy, to become a civilian Inspector of Naval Bands, a position created for him throughpersonal and family influence.Rimsky-Korsakov's subsequent career was a distinguished one. Atthe same time he accepted the duty of completing and often orchestrating works leftunfinished by other composers of the new Russian school. As early as 1869 Dargomizhsky hadleft him the task of completing the opera The Stone Guest. Twenty years later he was toperform similar tasks for the music of Mussorgsky and for Borodin, both of whom had leftmuch undone at the time of their deaths. Relations with Balakirev were not always easy andhe was to become associated with Belyayev and his schemes for the publication of newRussian music, a connection that Balakirev could only see as disloyalty. There were otherinfluences on his composition, particularly with his first hearing of Wagner's Ring in1889 and consequent renewed attention to opera, after a brief period of depression andsilence, the result of illness and death in his family.Rimsky-Korsakov was involved in the disturbances of 1905, whenhe sided with the Conservatory students, joining with some colleagues in a public demandfor political reform, an action that brought his dismissal from the institution, to whichhe was able to return when his pupil and friend Glazunov became director the followingye