Nikolai (or Nikolay) Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov was a prominent Russian composer, conductor and music teacher. He was the youngest member of 19th-century group of nationalist Russian composers known as 'The Five' or The Mighty Handful - Mily Balakirev (leader and organizer), Alexander Borodin, Cesar Cui, and Modest Mussorgsky.
Rimsky-Korsakov was born in Tikhvin (March 18, 1844), into an aristocratic family and had conventional music education. His initial ambition was to be a sailor, a naval officer. In 1856, he entered the Corps of Naval Cadets in St. Petersburg but while at sea he had pianoforte lessons and even managed to compose a symphony. He also attended opera and concerts. Influenced by Balakirev and impressed by Glinka’s nationalist works, he was stimulated, and showed great promise in his musical ability especially in orchestration.
At 27, he was offered the professorship in composition at St. Petersburg Conservatoire. He accepted the position despite knowledge that he was not qualified. Secretly, he began his self-imposed study in harmony and counterpoint. He also married a fellow musician, Nadezhda Purgold.
In 1882, his opera The Snow Maiden showed a new voice, fantasy blended with comedy. During the next few years nothing much happened in terms of musical output but after six years, he produced Spanish Capriccio, encored at its first presentation. With its success, Russian Easter Festival Overture followed and the symphonic suite Scheherazade, an exotic music derived from the famous classic tale Thousand and One Night. His mastery of orchestration, lively and colourful, is demonstrated in all three compositions.
Major operas
- The Maid of Pskov
- The Snow Maiden
- Mozart and Salieri
- The Legend of Tsar Saltan (with the famous The Flight of the Bumble Bee)
- Le Coq d’Or (The Golden Cockerel), a satirical attack on despotism.
His last opera, The Golden Cockerel was based on Pushkin's satire about a bumbling monarch, and for this, it was banned by the Russian government during his lifetime.
His other works include Sadko, a symphonic poem, Antar, programme symphony, Scheherazade, a symphonic suite with four episodes, considered his most famous work, Choruses, Folk song arrangements, and Piano pieces.
Rimsky-Korsakov completed works by other composers, such as Modest Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov (with his pupil Aleksandr Glazunov), the completion and orchestration of Aleksandr Borodin’s Prince Igor after Borodin died in 1887. Significantly, he very well extended his strong influence into the modern age, in particular his style, as a teacher of Igor Stravinsky, Alexander Glazunov and Sergei Prokofiev. He was also instrumental in having the younger Stravinsky's works find its way through the French impresario Sergei Diaghilev.
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov suffered from angina and died in Lyubensk on June 21, 1908. His widow preserved his work.
Sources:
The Encyclopedia of Music by Max Wade-Matthew & Wendy Thomson (2004)
The Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd Edition, ed. by Stanley Sadie (2000)
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