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Tag: Rimsky-Korsakov

Rimsky-Korsakov’s Pupil Buried Near Six Flags

Get this: there’s actually a pupil of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov buried outside Six Flags Great Adventure.

That’s right, Alexander Gretchaninov, who began composing in pre-revolutionary Russia, opted to decompose in New Jersey.

Gretchaninov, born on this date in 1864, wrote five symphonies, four string quartets, two piano trios, sonatas for violin, cello, clarinet and balalaika, several operas and numerous other works.

He claimed not even to have seen a piano until the age of 14, when he entered the Moscow Conservatory. He did so without the approval or even the knowledge of his father, a businessman who wholly expected his son to take over the family firm.

Gretchaninov studied there with Sergei Taneyev (who had studied with Tchaikovsky) and Anton Arensky. After a quarrel with Arensky, he moved to St. Petersburg to study with Arensky’s teacher, Rimsky-Korsakov.

By that point, Gretchaninov’s parents had basically disowned him. Rimsky, who recognized the teenager’s extraordinary talent, devoted extra time to his instruction and even assumed the role of a surrogate father, helping to support him financially. The two formed an intimate bond which lasted until Rimsky’s death in 1908.

Gretchaninov returned to Moscow and wrote quite a bit of music for the theater and the Russian Orthodox Church. He achieved such acclaim that in 1910 the Tsar awarded him an annual pension.

After the Revolution, Gretchaninov hung on for about eight years. Eventually he decided he’d had enough and left for France in 1925. In 1939, at the age of 75, he settled in the United States. He finally became an American citizen.

He died in New York in 1956, at the age of 91. His remains are buried outside the church at Rova Farms, a Russian enclave in Jackson Township, Ocean County. One hopes he was buried deep enough that the lions don’t get him.

Happy Birthday, Alexander Gretchaninov!

Here’s sampler of Gretchaninov’s liturgical music:

And a cross-section of his symphonies:

October 25, 2014
Scheherazade Sinfonietta Nova Closes Season

Tell me more!

The story framing “One Thousand and One Nights” presents a sultan scarred by the unfaithfulness of his sultana. To guarantee their fidelity, he has had each of his subsequent wives executed on the day following their nuptials. The most recent in the line, Scheherazade, must use her wits to prolong her life and win the sultan’s love.

If I were the sultan, she would have nothing to fear. I never get tired of listening to “Scheherazade.” Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s oft-performed symphonic poem will bring Sinfonietta Nova’s 2013-2014 season to a colorful close. The program will open with another “Arabian Nights” inspiration, Carl Maria von Weber’s overture to the one-act farce, “Abu Hassan.”

In between, soprano Lauren Athey-Janka will sing the “Song to the Moon,” from Antonín Dvořák’s “Rusalka.” Rusalka is a water spirit from Slavic mythology, whose tale bears more than a passing resemblance to Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Little Mermaid.”

The program will also include a concerto for that unlikeliest of lyric instruments, the tuba, by an 82 year-old Ralph Vaughan Williams. Scott Mendoker will be the soloist.

Scheherazade’s fascination is a tribute to the power of creative storytelling. Tonight’s performance will feature spoken narration, adapted from “One Thousand and One Nights” by Alton Thompson. The storyteller will be musician and former WWFM radio personality Bliss Michelson.

The program will conclude Sinfonietta Nova’s “fairy tale” season. Music director Gail Lee will conduct.

The concert will take place at 7:30 p.m., at Prince of Peace Lutheran Church, 177 Princeton-Hightstown Rd., West Windsor, NJ (some sources indicate Princeton Junction).

Tickets and information are available at sinfoniettanova.org, or at 609-785-1812.

May 10, 2014
Tchaikovsky’s Devilish Opera

Okay, so the Kentucky Derby is today. But I’m not here to write about that. I’m here to write about Tchaikovsky and the Devil.

Opera aficionado Sandy Steiglitz will be broadcasting Tchaikovsky’s “Cherevichki” (“The Slippers”), tomorrow on WPRB’s “Sunday Morning Opera with Sandy.”

Part fairy tale and part farce, Yakov Polansky’s libretto features such incidentals as the theft of the moon, amorous peasants secreting themselves in burlap sacks, and a ride through the air on the Devil’s back to collect the Tsarina’s slippers (hence, the title). All this takes place against the backdrop of a Ukrainian Christmas.

“Cherevichki” (sometimes spelled “Tcherevichki”) is Tchaikovsky’s reworking of an earlier opera, “Vakula the Smith,” which the composer believed unjustly ignored. Even in its revised form, the work is arguably more obscure than Rimsky-Korsakov’s neglected gem, “Christmas Eve,” which was drawn from the same source material (a story from Nikolai Gogol’s collection, “Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka,” of which you will hear more on June 23, Saint John’s Eve).

Fun fact: there was a complicated rivalry between Tchaikovsky and Rimsky-Korsakov, each composer supportive of the other in public, while in private nagged by suspicion and envy. Though Tchaikovsky was sufficiently awed to swear his publisher to secrecy about his use of the then-new celesta in “The Nutcracker,” lest Rimsky steal his thunder, Rimsky had no qualms about following in Tchaikovsky’s footsteps when setting “Christmas Eve.” His version of the Gogol tale appeared ten years later, in 1895.

The only thing crazier than airing a Christmas opera in May is writing a Christmas opera about the devil. Needless to say, I can resist neither.

Check out “Cherevichki” on WPRB’s “Sunday Morning Opera with Sandy,” tomorrow at 6:45 a.m. ET. If you’re an early riser, tune in around 5:30. Sandy’s there spinning arias and duets at a time when the roosters are still wiping the sleep out of their eyes.

You can hear the show locally (Princeton, NJ) at 103.3 FM, or anywhere online at wprb.com. While you’re listening, visit her Facebook page – Sunday Morning Opera with Sandy – and leave nice comments.

PHOTO: Ivan Mozzhukhin in a silent film version of Gogol’s tale, “The Night Before Christmas” (1913)

May 3, 2014

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