Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov

A great orchestrator of Russian music and a member of the "Group of Five", the author of Flight of the Bumblebee mainly composed for opera, although his symphonic works Scheherazade, Spanish Capriccio and The Great Russian Passover were highly acclaimed by the public. Born into a wealthy family in Tikhvin, in the Russian Empire, on March 18, 1844, Nikolai Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov learned to play the piano at the age of six and assimilated a large number of pieces, but what his family considered a hobby could never become a professional activity. He was destined for a career in the navy, which began when he joined the St. Petersburg Cadet School, where he studied for six years from 1856 to 1862. The student took advantage of his absence to attend concerts and opera performances, and to take piano lessons with Théodore Canillé, who introduced him to Mikhail Glinka, "the father of Russian music", and to Mili Balakirev. Balakirev, who also introduced him to César Cui, Modeste Moussorgski and the critic Vladimir Stassov, suggested that Balakirev write a symphony, which he completed four years later, because after graduating, the sailor had to embark on theAlmaz for a nearly three-year voyage around the world. His master instructed him to immerse himself in the music of the countries he visited. On his return, on December 31, 1865, Balakirev successfully conducted the premiere of his Symphony no. 1, the first of its kind in Russia. The composer, assigned to the naval staff, worked on other orchestral pieces inspired by Slavic folklore and on the symphonic poem Sadko (1867), followed by his Symphony no. 2 "Antar " (1868). Admitted to the "Group of Five" with Balakirev, Cui, Moussorgski and Alexander Borodin, he frequented the capital's artistic circles and met a young composer from the conservatory, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, whose more Western style differed from that of his comrades. In 1871, Rimsky-Korsakov was hired as professor of composition and orchestration at the St. Petersburg Conservatory, a position that required him to master the notions of harmony and counterpoint. At the same time, he moved in with Mussorgsky and composed the opera La Pskovitaine (or The Maiden of Pskov), after Léon Meï. In July 1872, he married the singer and pianist Nadedja Purgold, whom he had met at musical evenings organized by his family and who arranged Sadko and Antar in four-hand piano versions. The couple had seven children, including musicologist Andrei, who edited several biographical volumes about his father. The following year, the officer was assigned to inspect the Imperial Navy's orchestras, giving him an overview of the repertoires and training levels of conductors and musicians, and creating a class for cadets at the Conservatory. After the premiere of his third symphony in 1874, he taught at Balakirev's Free School of Music until 1882, and spent two years collecting folk songs. The opera May Night after Gogol, begun in 1878, was premiered on December 10, 1895, after The Snow Maiden(Snegrotchka), begun in 1880 and premiered on February 10, 1882. Following Mussorgsky's death in 1881, Rimsky-Korsakov undertook a major orchestration of his works, giving them their rightful place in Russian music. In 1884, when his post as Inspector of Naval Orchestras was abolished, he assisted Balakirev as Director of the Imperial Chapel until 1893. Between 1886 and 1890, he combined this function with his post at the Conservatoire, directing the Concerts symphoniques russes, created by the publisher Belaïeff. He wrote a Traité d'harmonie pratique (1884) and successively composed three of his best-known works, the Capriccio espagnol (1887), the symphonic suite Schéhérazade and the concert overture La Grande Pâque russe (1888), in memory of Moussorgski and Borodine. After attending rehearsals for Wagner's Ring with Alexander Glazunov during the 1888-1889 season, the composer devoted the remainder of his career almost exclusively to opera, starting with Mlada, premiered in November 1892. In 1889, he attended the Exposition Universelle in Paris, where he conducted two concerts, and the following year went to the Théâtre de la Monnaie in Brussels for another evening. The following years were marked by health problems, a broken relationship with Balakirev after his revision of Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov, his wife's illness and the loss of two of their children. In the space of a decade, Rimsky-Korsakov composed no less than nine operas, which are still performed today: Sadko, based on popular legends, premiered in January 1898; Mozart and Salieri, based on Pushkin, premiered in December of the same year; The Tsar's Bride, based on Meï, premiered in November 1899; The Tale of Tsar Saltan, after Pushkin, premiered in November 1900, from which was taken the orchestral interlude The Flight of the Bumblebee, a virtuoso piece for violin later adapted for all types of instruments; Servilia, after Meï, premiered in October 1902; Khachtcheï l'immortel, based on Russian folklore, premiered in December 1902; La Légende de la ville invisible de Kitège et de la demoiselle Fevronia, whose argument based on Slavic legends brought him closer to Wagner, premiered in February 1907; and Le Coq d'or, a satire of the government based on Pushkin, which led to problems with the censors, premiered posthumously with modifications on October 7, 1909. During the first Russian Revolution of 1905, the composer had been dismissed for supporting the student rebels and setting the anthem Dubinushka to music, before being unofficially reinstated. In 1907, he returned to Paris to conduct two concerts at Diaghilev's invitation, before succeeding Edvard Grieg as foreign correspondent at the Institut de France. In his final years, he worked on his Chronique de ma vie musicale, published in 1913. Chronic angina caused his death at his estate in Lyubensk on June 21, 1908, at the age of 64. Igor Stravinsky, who was one of his last pupils after Glazunov, Liadov, Arenski, Ippolitov-Ivanov, Tchérepnine, Steinberg, Miaskovski, Prokofiev and Respighi, composed a Chant funèbre for wind orchestra as a tribute.

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