Classic Ross Amico

Tag: Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov

Rimsky-Korsakov Birthday My Favorite Music

Happy birthday, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov! I’ve always been a fan.

Recommended Rimsky playlist:

Ormandy and the “Procession of the Nobles” from “Mlada”

Song of the Viking Guest from “Sadko,” with Mark Reizen

Lots of intoxicating music in this staged performance of “Sadko” (complete, Gergiev conducting)

Ernest Ansermet conducts the Symphony No. 2 “Antar,” a haunting work, full of beautiful melodies, that was once much better known

Leopold Stokowski conducts the “Russian Easter Festival Overture,” employing a bass-baritone in place of a trombone solo, for maximum liturgical effect

Evgeny Mravinsky conducts a suite from “The Invisible City of Kitezh”

Mikhail Pletnev in Rimsky’s little-known gem, the Quintet for Piano and Winds

Lily Pons sings the “Hymn to the Sun” from “Le coq d’or”

Leif Segerstam conducts “Scheherazade,” with a highly unconventional, piratical conclusion

“Flight of the Bumblebee” with real bees (!), courtesy of The Lost Fingers

March 18, 2020
Night on Bald Mountain Halloween History

31 DAYS OF HALLOWEEN (DAY 15)

On this date in 1886, Modest Mussorgsky’s “A Night on Bald Mountain” was given its posthumous debut. The premiere took place in St. Petersburg, with the Russian Symphony Orchestra conducted by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov.

Mussorgsky’s rough-hewn textures, idiosyncratic harmony, slap-dash orchestration, and illogical modulations were often viewed as “mistakes” by his well-intentioned contemporaries. The composer was notoriously fond of alcohol, flamboyantly reckless, until a series of seizures sent him into a rapid decline. A week after his 42nd birthday, Modest Mussorgsky was dead.

Understandably, many of the artistic choices of this raging bull of a man were regarded with skepticism and even pity.

It is through the arrangements, revisions and completions of his friend, Rimsky-Korsakov, that “A Night on Bald Mountain,” “Boris Godunov,” and “Khovanschina” became world-famous. It is only in recent decades that Mussorgsky’s original thoughts have been reassessed. And you know what? The guy may have been a total slob, but he was brilliant.

“A Night in Bald Mountain” exists in several incarnations, the first dating all the way back to 1867. It was a symphonic poem; it was outfitted with a chorus for a collaborative project by members of the Mighty Handful (the opera-ballet “Mlada”); and it was plugged into one of Mussorgsky’s own operas, “Sorochinsky Fair,” left incomplete at the time of the composer’s death.

Some fifty years after “Bald Mountain’s” debut in the Rimsky edition, Leopold Stokowski made his own arrangement for the Walt Disney classic, “Fantasia.” And it’s been scaring the hell out of little kids ever since. Happy Hallowe’en!

Behold, the demon Chernabog:

“The Scary Origins of Disney’s Most Evil Character”

October 15, 2019
Mily Balakirev Russian Music’s Kingmaker

Mily Balakirev was Russia’s musical kingmaker.

Balakirev, of course, was the founder of the “Mighty Handful,” or “The Russian Five,” that collective of Russian nationalist composers that also included Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Modest Mussorgsky, Alexander Borodin, and Cesar Cui.

He had very strong ideas about what Russian music should be, and he was not at all bashful about telling other composers what to do. He essentially micromanaged the early careers of his acolytes, which included not only “The Five,” but on several occasions Peter Ilych Tchaikovsky.

In his later years, though Balakirev’s influence was on the wane, he made two final, important contributions. He was responsible for introducing the prodigy Alexander Glazunov to Rimsky-Korsakov, and he was blessed with one last, very talented disciple, Sergei Lyapunov.

This Sunday night on “The Lost Chord,” we’ll hear music by this last of the Russian nationalists, who was as much influenced by the keyboard prowess of Liszt as he was the patriotic zeal of his mentor. He also happens to be the composer of “The Lost Chord” signature music.

I hope you’ll join me for “One Past Five” – music of Sergei Lyapunov – this Sunday night at 10:00 EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

WHEN BEARDS WERE IN: Top left, Mily Balakirev; bottom left (clockwise), Cesar Cui, Modest Mussorgsky, Alexander Borodin, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov; right, Sergei Lyapunov

June 3, 2018

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