Suprisingly there are not many commemorative concerts held here in Hong Kong to mark the death of this teacher of Prokofiev and Stravinsky.
His name is often associated with Sherherazde op 35( "one of the most popular orchestral works ever written") and Capriccio Espangol op 34. However, my playlist also includes :
- Le Coq d'or (Golden Cockerel) Suite
- Procession of the Nobles from Mlada
- Russian Easter overture
- Flight of the bumble bees from The Tale of Tsar Sultan
- Song of India from Sadko
- Glory to the ancient powerful one from Sadko
What is playing is The Bagdad Festival from his Sherherazade, noted for the exceptionally fine trumpet playing.
For his biographical note I can do no better than to quote from the World Book:
Rimsky-Korsakov, Nikolai (1844-1908), was a celebrated Russian composer and music teacher. His symphonic suite Scheherazade (1888) ranks as one of the most popular orchestral works ever written.
Rimsky-Korsakov became famous for his imaginative blend of orchestral sounds. Examples include Capriccio Espagnol (1887) and the Russian Easter Overture (1888). Rimsky-Korsakov based many of his 15 operas on Russian history and folklore. Only one of them, Le Coq d'Or (The Golden Cockerel, completed in 1907), won international fame. But his operas The Snow Maiden (1882), Sadko (1898), and Tsar Saltan (1900) are popular in the Soviet Union. Two of his most famous pieces come from his operas "Song of India" from Sadko and "The Flight of the Bumblebee" from Tsar Saltan.
Nikolai Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov was born in Tikhvin, near Novgorod. From 1856 to 1862,he attended the Naval Academy in St. Petersburg. In 1861, Rimsky-Korsakov met the composer Mily Balakirev and joined a group of young composers who later became known as The Five. This group, led by Balakirev, urged Russian composers to stress their national heritage in their music.
In 1862, Rimsky-Korsakov sailed on a three-year naval cruise, during which he visited the United States. He completed his first symphony aboard ship. After returning to St. Petersburg in 1865, he revised the symphony under Balakirev's supervision. It had its first performance that same year.
In 1871, Rimsky-Korsakov left the navy and joined the faculty of the St. Petersburg Conservatory. He realized that he knew almost no music theory, and so he taught himself counterpoint, harmony, and music form. He became one of the world's greatest music theorists. He taught several students who achieved fame as composers, including Sergei Prokofiev and Igor Stravinsky.
Rimsky-Korsakov also edited and revised compositions that his friends Alexander Borodin and ModestMussorgsky had left unfinished when they died. Orchestras and opera companies usually perform Rimsky- Korsakov's version of Mussorgsky's opera Boris Godunov. Borodin's opera Prince Igor is usually performed in the version completed by Rimsky-Korsakov and the Russian composer Alexander Glazunov.
This celebrated musician was long teaching in the St Petersburg conservatory. One of the greatest museums in the world the State Hermitage Museum is also in St Petersburg. So if ever I should visit Russia I shall make these stops mandatory in my itinerary.
