Mussorgsky Dawn on the Moskva-River
Introduction to the Opera “Khovanshchina“
Edition: Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
USSR Symphony Orchestra
Evgeny Svetlanov, conductor
Pictures: Moskva-river…
Introduction to the Opera “Khovanshchina“
Edition: Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
USSR Symphony Orchestra
Evgeny Svetlanov, conductor
Pictures: Moskva-river…
Posted in ARTISTS AND ARTS - Music, Educational, IN THE SPOTLIGHT, MEMORIES, ONE OF MY FAVORITE THINGS, PEOPLE AND PLACES HISTORY, GEOGRAPHY, Uncategorized, YouTube/SoundCloud: Music, Special Interest
Tagged dawn, Evgeny Svetlanov, Five, Khovanshchina, Leopold Stokowski, Make Music Part of Your Life Series, Modest Mussorgsky, Moskva, Moskva River, Mussorgsky Dawn, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Opera
Posted in ARTISTS AND ARTS - Music, Educational, IN THE SPOTLIGHT, MEMORIES, MY TAKE ON THINGS, PEOPLE AND PLACES HISTORY, GEOGRAPHY, Uncategorized, YouTube/SoundCloud: Music, Special Interest
Tagged Alexander Borodin, Alexander Porfir, Borodin, Central Asia, Daniel Nazareth, Five, Great Compositions/Performances, In the Steppes of Central Asia, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, slovak philharmonic orchestra, Steppes of Central Asia
While the Symphony No. 6 in C minor, Op. 58, of 1896 by Alexander Glazunov is not the most personally characteristic of his eight completed symphonies — the optimistic Third or the Olympian Fifth are more typical of his confident symphonic aesthetic — it is arguably the most typically Russian of his symphonies. Part of the reason for this is the scoring — violins in octaves above massed brass at its climaxes à la Tchaikovsky and gorgeously colorful woodwind writing in its central movements — part of it is the themes — ardent and powerful with a yearning quality characteristic of fin de siècle Russian symphonies — but most of it is the furious tone of the opening movement.
******With the darkly unfolding Adagio leading into a Allegro appassionato that balances a passionately despairing first theme with a fervently supplicating second theme, Glazunov’s Sixth sounds like a Russian symphony composed after the death of Tchaikovsky. But the Sixth is more than the work of a symphonic epigone. While the tone of the opening movement sounds typically Russian, its chromatic melodic and cogent harmonic structure makes it sound much more modern than contemporary symphonies by Kalinnikov or even Rachmaninov. Even more modern are the Sixth’s second and fourth movements.
******The second movement is a theme and seven variations that slowly transmutes the tone of the symphony from the fury of the opening movement to one of calm acceptance.
******The brief third-movement Intermezzo that precedes the Finale is lighter in tone than anything else in the symphony.
******The Finale itself is one of Glazunov’s most successful closing movements. With its magisterial Andante maestoso introduction announcing the chorale theme that will ultimately cap the movement, its highly contrasted themes — the first confidently striding in the winds Moderato maestoso, the second a lilting Scherzando theme for the flutes, horns, and strings — the Finale seems at first too episodic to cohere. Glazunov’s superb technical skills, however, form all the Finale’s material into an organic whole and the tone of the Finale — powerfully positive — is altogether Glazunov’s own. ~ James Leonard, Rovi
Read more:
http://www.answers.com/topic/symphony-no-6-in-c-minor-op-58#ixzz3AkekJ1oA
http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/artists/5a0988a4-695c-4bff-bc68-4f312427495e.html
http://www.allmusic.com/composition/symphony-no-6-in-c-minor-op-58-mc0002366895
Posted in Educational, IN THE SPOTLIGHT, MEMORIES, PEOPLE AND PLACES HISTORY, GEOGRAPHY, Uncategorized, YouTube/SoundCloud: Music, Special Interest
Tagged Aleksandr Glazunov, alexander glazunov, Finale, Five, Make Music Part of Your Life Series, Mily Balakirev, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Orchestra, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Saint Petersburg, sergei rachmaninoff, Symphony, tchaikovsky, Tempo
Posted in Educational, IN THE SPOTLIGHT, MEMORIES, PEOPLE AND PLACES HISTORY, GEOGRAPHY, Uncategorized, YouTube/SoundCloud: Music, Special Interest
Tagged Alexander Borodin, Asia, Borodin, Central Asia, Five, In the Steppes of Central Asia, Kazakhstan, Kyoko Oyagi, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, russian opera, Steppes, Steppes of Central Asia
[youtube.com/watch?v=KVIB3T2Q-sY]
Please remember to visit http://www.youtube.com/user/shreddeds… and sign her petition.
Rimsky Korakov A lively classical instrumental, this recording made in the late 70s.
Posted in Educational, IN THE SPOTLIGHT, MEMORIES, MY TAKE ON THINGS, ONE OF MY FAVORITE THINGS, PEOPLE AND PLACES HISTORY, GEOGRAPHY, Uncategorized, YouTube/SoundCloud: Music, Special Interest
Tagged Arts -Architecture, sculpture, Classical, Dance Of The Tumblers, Five, flight of the bumblebee, Mily Balakirev, Music, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Orchestra Glazunov, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Rimsky Korakov, rimsky korsakov, Russian Easter Festival Overture, Sound Files
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov – Rimsky-Korsakov – Scheherazade Symphonic Suite for Orchestra Op.35 – IV. Allegro molto (performed by unknown)
Nikolai Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov (Russian: ??????? ????????? ???????-????????; Russian pronunciation: [n??k??laj ?r?im.sk??j ?kors?k?f]; 18 March [O.S. 6 March] 1844[a 1] — 21 June [O.S. 8 June] 1908) was a Russian composer, and a member of the group of composers known as The Five.[a 2] He was a master of orchestration. His best-known orchestral compositions—Capriccio Espagnol, the Russian Easter Festival Overture, and the symphonic suite Scheherazade—are staples of the classical music repertoire, along with suites and excerpts from some of his 15 operas. Scheherazade is an example of his frequent use of fairy tale and folk subjects. Rimsky-Korsakov believed, as did fellow composer Mily Balakirev and critic Vladimir Stasov, in developing a nationalistic style of classical music. This style employed Russian folk song and lore along with exotic harmonic, melodic and rhythmic elements in a practice known as musical orientalism, and eschewed traditional Western compositional methods. However, Rimsky-Korsakov appreciated Western musical techniques after he became a professor of musical composition, harmony and orchestration at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory in 1871. He undertook a rigorous three-year program of self-education and became a master of Western methods, incorporating them alongside the influences of Mikhail Glinka and fellow members of The Five. His techniques of composition and orchestration were further enriched by his exposure to the works of Richard Wagner. For much of his life, Rimsky-Korsakov combined his composition and teaching with a career in the Russian military—at first as an officer in the Imperial Russian Navy, then as the civilian Inspector of Naval Bands. He wrote that he developed a passion for the ocean in childhood from reading books and hearing of his older brother’s exploits in the navy. This love of the sea might have influenced him to write two of his best-known orchestral works, the musical tableau Sadko (not his later opera of the same name) and Scheherazade. Through his service as Inspector of Naval Bands, Rimsky-Korsakov expanded his knowledge of woodwind and brass playing, which enhanced his abilities in orchestration. He passed this knowledge to his students, and also posthumously through a textbook on orchestration that was completed by his son-in-law, Maximilian Steinberg. Rimsky-Korsakov left a considerable body of original Russian nationalist compositions. He prepared works by The Five for performance, which brought them into the active classical repertoire (although there is controversy over his editing of the works of Modest Mussorgsky), and shaped a generation of younger composers and musicians during his decades as an educator. Rimsky-Korsakov is therefore considered “the main architect” of what the classical music public considers the Russian style of composition. His influence on younger composers was especially important, as he served as a transitional figure between the autodidactism which exemplified Glinka and The Five and professionally trained composers which would become the norm in Russia by the closing years of the 19th century. While Rimsky-Korsakov’s style was based on those of Glinka, Balakirev, Hector Berlioz, and Franz Liszt, he “transmitted this style directly to two generations of Russian composers” and influenced non-Russian composers including Maurice Ravel, Claude Debussy, Paul Dukas and Ottorino Respighi.
Posted in Educational, IN THE SPOTLIGHT, MEMORIES, PEOPLE AND PLACES HISTORY, GEOGRAPHY, Uncategorized, YouTube/SoundCloud: Music, Special Interest
Tagged Five, mikhail glinka, Mily Balakirev, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, rimsky korsakov, Russian Easter Festival Overture, Saint Petersburg Conservatory, Scheherazade
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The lengthy full title of both the opera and the poem is The Tale of Tsar Saltan, of his Son the Renowned and Mighty Bogatyr Prince Gvidon Saltanovich and of the Beautiful Princess-Swan.
Note: The name “Saltan” is often erroneously rendered “Sultan”. Likewise, another mistranslation of the Russian title found in English makes this a “legend” rather than simply a “tale” or “fairytale”.
(Russian: Николай Андреевич Римский-Корсаков; Russian pronunciation: [nʲɪkəˌlaj ˌrʲim.skʲɪj ˈkorsəkəf]; 18 March [O.S. 6 March] 1844[a 1] – 21 June [O.S. 8 June] 1908) was a Russian composer, and a member of the group of composers known as The Five.[a 2] He was a master of orchestration. His best-known orchestral compositions—Capriccio Espagnol, the Russian Easter Festival Overture, and the symphonic suite Scheherazade—are staples of the classical music repertoire, along with suites and excerpts from some of his 15 operas.Scheherazade is an example of his frequent use of fairy tale and folk subjects.
Rimsky-Korsakov believed, as did fellow composer Mily Balakirev and critic Vladimir Stasov, in developing a nationalistic style of classical music. This style employed Russian folk song and lore along with exotic harmonic, melodic and rhythmic elements in a practice known as musical orientalism, and eschewed traditional Western compositional methods. However, Rimsky-Korsakov appreciated Western musical techniques after he became a professor of musical composition, harmony and orchestration at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory in 1871. He undertook a rigorous three-year program of self-education and became a master of Western methods, incorporating them alongside the influences of Mikhail Glinka and fellow members of The Five. His techniques of composition and orchestration were further enriched by his exposure to the works of Richard Wagner.
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Posted in Educational, IN THE SPOTLIGHT, MEMORIES, PEOPLE AND PLACES HISTORY, GEOGRAPHY, Uncategorized, YouTube/SoundCloud: Music, Special Interest
Tagged Five, Google, iTunes, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Opera, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, rimsky korsakov, Russia, Russian language, Tale of Tsar Saltan, Tsar, Tsar Saltan
Prominent Russians: Aleksandr Glazunov
Aleksandr Glazunov was a Russian composer, professor and rector of the St. Petersburg Conservatory. His works of the late Russian Romantic period reconciled nationalism and cosmopolitanism in Russian music.
Child musical prodigy
Glazunov was born into a wealthy merchant family – his father was a prominent publisher and book trader in St. Petersburg. Glazunov’s mother was a good pianist and had a major influence on Aleksandr’s music education. She hired the best piano teachers for her son. To her great satisfaction, Glazunov was an eager student and as early as 13 he revealed a great talent for composition. In 1879 he met Mily Balakirev, one of the founders of the Russian nationalist school of composers known as The Five or The Mighty Handful.
Impressed by Glazunov’s talent, Balakirev recommended him to Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, a composer and a member of The Five. Rimsky-Korsakov took it upon himself to teach Glazunov the theory of composition, harmony and instrumental accompaniment. Glazunov was a bright student and was able to cover the whole Conservatory program in just a year and a half.
Glazunov composed his first symphony at the age of 16, which was first played at a free school concert. It was also later performed at the Moscow Exhibition, conducted by Rimsky-Korsakov. Glazunov’s symphony was very well received and was followed by other works, which were just as fine as his first piece.
Glazunov with Fedor Chaliapin and Vladimir Stasov
Portrait of Alexander Glazunov.
Posted in Educational, IN THE SPOTLIGHT, MEMORIES, PEOPLE AND PLACES HISTORY, GEOGRAPHY, Uncategorized, YouTube/SoundCloud: Music, Special Interest
Tagged Aleksandr Glazunov, alexander glazunov, Alfred Fedetsky, Five, Glazunov, Kharkov, Mily Balakirev, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, rimsky korsakov, Romanticism, Saint Petersburg, St. Petersburg Conservatory, Ukraine Aleksandr Glazunov
In the Steppes of Central Asia (1880)
A “musical tableau” for orchestra by Russian composer and chemist Alexander Borodin (1833-1887), a member of the group of composers known as The Five, or the Mighty Handful. The work was originally intended to celebrate the silver anniversary of the reign of Czar Alexander II, who had expanded the domain of Imperial Russia eastward into Central Asia. The celebration never came to fruition due to the assassination of the Czar; instead the piece was premiered in a concert in 1880 by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and the orchestra of the Russian Opera. Borodin dedicated it to Franz Liszt.
This recording was made by conductor Jos van Immerseel and the Anima Eterna Orchestra, which plays on period instruments.
Posted in Educational, IN THE SPOTLIGHT, MEMORIES, PEOPLE AND PLACES HISTORY, GEOGRAPHY, Uncategorized, YouTube/SoundCloud: Music, Special Interest
Tagged Alexander Borodin, Central Asia, Five, In the Steppes of Central Asia, musical tableau, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Russia, russian composer, russian opera, Steppes of Central Asia