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Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov

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Nikolai Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov (Russian: Николай Андреевич Римский-Корсаков, Nikolaj Andreevič Rimskij-Korsakov), also Nikolay, Nicolai, and Rimsky-Korsakoff, (March 6/18, 1844–June 8/21, 1908) was a Russian composer and teacher of classical music particularly noted for his fine orchestration, which may have been influenced by his synaesthesia. His most famous compositions are Flight of the Bumblebee, Capriccio Espagnol, Russian Easter Overture, and Scheherazade.

Rimsky-Korsakov

Biography

Born at Tikhvin, near Novgorod, into an aristocratic family, Rimsky-Korsakov showed musical ability from an early age, but studied at the Russian Imperial Naval College in Saint Petersburg and subsequently joined the Russian Navy. It was only when he met Mily Balakirev in 1861 that he began to concentrate more seriously on music. Balakirev encouraged him to compose and taught him when he was not at sea. (A fictionalized episode of Rimsky-Korsakov's sea voyages forms the plot of the motion picture Song of Scheherezade, the musical score adapted by Miklós Rózsa.) He also met the other composers of the group that were to become known as "The Five", or "The Mighty Handful", through Mily Balakirev. While in the Navy (partly on a world cruise), Rimsky-Korsakov completed his first symphony (1861-1865), which some have deemed the first such piece to be composed by a Russian, but this is not the case (the Russian Anton Rubinstein composed his own first symphony in 1850). He also completed his well known orchestral piece Sadko (1867) and the opera The Maid of Pskov (1872), before resigning his commission in 1873. These three are among several early works which the composer revised later in life.

Rimsky-Korsakov's grave at Tikhvin Cemetery.

In 1871, despite being largely group- and self-educated within The Five rather than being conservatory-trained, Rimsky-Korsakov became professor of composition and orchestration at the Saint Petersburg Conservatoire. The next year he married Nadezhda Nikolayevna Rimskaya-Korsakova (née Purgol'd, 1848-1919), who was a musician (pianist and composer) in her own right. At the Conservatory he taught many composers who would later find fame, including Alexander Glazunov, Sergei Prokofiev and Igor Stravinsky. He continued to be a prolific composer, producing many orchestral works, including the well known Scheherazade and Capriccio espagnol. He also wrote fifteen operas, including Kashchei the Immortal and The Tale of Tsar Saltan, the latter of which includes the famous Flight of the Bumblebee, since arranged for all kinds of different instrumental groups. Among his Russian Orthodox liturgical music is the a cappella Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom.

In 1905 Rimsky-Korsakov was removed from his professorship in Saint Petersburg owing to his expressing some political views the authorities disapproved of. This sparked a series of resignations by his fellow faculty members, and he was eventually reinstated. The political controversy continued with his opera The Golden Cockerel (Le Coq d'Or) (1906-1907), whose implied criticism of monarchy upset the censors to the point that the premiere was delayed until 1909, after the composer's death.

Towards the end of his life, Rimsky-Korsakov suffered from angina. He died in Lyubensk in 1908, and was interred in Tikhvin Cemetery at the Aleksandr Nevsky Lavra in St. Petersburg. His widow Nadezhda spent the rest of her life preserving the composer's legacy.

Rimsky-Korsakov's legacy goes far beyond his compositions and his teaching career. His tireless efforts in editing the works of other members of The Five are significant, if controversial. These include the completion of Alexander Borodin's opera Prince Igor (with Alexander Glazunov), orchestration of several passages from César Cui's William Ratcliff for the first production in 1869, and the complete orchestration of Alexander Dargomyzhsky's swan song, The Stone Guest. This practice was a practical extension of the fact that Rimsky-Korsakov's early works had been under the scrutiny of Balakirev and that the members of The Five during the 1860s and 1870s played each other's compositions-in-progress and even collaborated at times.

While the effort for his colleagues is laudable, it is not without its problems for musical reception. In particular, after the death of Modest Mussorgsky in 1881, Rimsky-Korsakov took on the task of revising and completing several of Mussorgsky's pieces for publication and performance. In some cases these versions helped to spread Mussorgsky's works to the West, but Rimsky-Korsakov has been accused of pedantry for "correcting" matters of harmony, etc., in the process. Rimsky-Korsakov's arrangement of Mussorgsky's Night on Bald Mountain is the version generally performed today. However, critical opinion of Mussorgsky has changed over time so that his style, once considered unpolished, is now valued for its originality. This has caused some of Rimsky-Korsakov's other revisions, such as that of Boris Godunov, to fall out of favor and be replaced by productions more faithful to Mussorgsky's original manuscripts.

Rimsky-Korsakov's nephew Georgy Mikhailovich Rimsky-Korsakov (1901-1965) was also a composer; his son Andrey Nikolayevich Rimsky-Korsakov (1878-1940) was a musicologist who wrote a multi-volume study of his father's life and work, which included a chapter devoted to his mother Nadezhda.

Musical Works

Operas

(only completed works are listed)

  • Псковитянка (Pskovitjanka) = The Maid of Pskov: 1862-1872 (1st version); 1876-1877 (2nd version); 1891-1892 (3rd version)
  • Млада (Mlada): 1872 (portions of Acts II and III from project composed collectively by Borodin, Cui, Minkus, Musorgsky, and Rimsky-Korsakov)
  • Майская ночь (Majskaja noch' ) = May Night: 1878-1879
  • Снегурочка (Sneguročka) = The Snow Maiden: 1880-1881 (1st version); ca. 1895 (2nd version)
  • Млада (Mlada): 1889-1890 (complete setting of unstaged collaborative project from 1872)
  • Ночь перед Рождеством (Noč' pered Roždestvom) = Christmas Eve: 1894-1895
  • Садко (Sadko): 1895-1896
  • Моцарт и Сальери (Mocart i Sal'eri) = Mozart and Salieri: 1897
  • Боярыня Вера Шелога (Bojarynja Vera Šeloga) = The Noblewoman Vera Sheloga: 1898
  • Царская невеста (Carskaja nevesta) = The Tsar's Bride: 1898
  • Сказка о царе Салтане, о сыне его, славном и могучем богатыре князе Гвидоне Салтановиче и о прекрасной Царевне Лебеди (Skazka o care Saltane, o syne ego, slavnom i mogučem bogatyre knjaze Gvidone Saltanoviče i o prekrasnoj Carevne Lebedi) = The Tale of Tsar Saltan, of His Son, the Famous and Mighty Bogatyr Prince Gvidon Saltanovich, and of the Beautiful Princess Swan: 1899-1900
  • Сервилия (Servilija) = Servilia: 1900-1901
  • Кащей бессмертный (Kaščej bessmertnyj) = Kashchey the Immortal 1901-1902
  • Пан воевода (Pan vojevoda) = Pan Wojewoda (The Gentleman Provincial Governor): 1902-1903
  • Сказание о невидимом граде Китеже и деве Февронии (Skazanie o nevidimom grade Kiteže i deve Fevronii) = The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh and the Maiden Fevroniya: 1903-1904
  • Золотой петушок (Zolotoj petušok) = The Golden Cockerel: 1906-1907

Choral

-- Sacred Choral --

-- Secular Choral --

Songs

Chamber

Piano

Folksong Collections

Editing or Completion of Works by Others

Transcriptions

Major Literary Works

  • Textbook of Harmony
  • Chronicle of My Musical Life
  • Principles of Orchestration

Bibliographic Sources

Other Media

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