Rimsky-Korsakov was one of the many Russian composers who took up a musical career after a future had been planned along the line of some other work. In his case the Navy lost where music gained. Nicholas Andreievich Rimsky-Korsakov was born March 18, 1844, at Tikhvin, Russia. He had the good fortune to spend his early life in the country, and at the same time to hear from infancy the best music. On the estate of his father were four Jews, who formed a little band. This band supplied music at all social functions that took place at the Korsakov home. He began to study the piano when he was six years old, and three years later he was improvising.
The boy’s parents, although they were glad to have him study music, planned a naval career for him. When he was twelve years old, in 1856, he was sent to the Petrograd Naval College. While studying there, however, he continued his music. In 1861 he began to take his musical studies very seriously. The following year, however, he had to conclude his naval education with a three years’ cruise in foreign waters. When this cruise was over, in 1865, a symphony that he had composed had its first performance. This symphony bears the distinction of being the first musical work in that form by a Russian composer.
In 1866 began Korsakov’s friendship with Moussorgsky, which lasted until the latter’s death in 1881. From then on, for the next few years, he worked hard at musical composition. It was during this time that he first began to turn his attention to opera, of which “Pskovitianka,” begun in 1870, was the first. In 1871 Rimsky-Korsakov was appointed a professor in the Conservatory at Petrograd. Two years later he decided to sever his connection with the Navy altogether. This year also saw the beginning of his collection of folk songs, which were published in 1877. The year before this, Korsakov had married. His wife was Nadejda Pourgold, the talented Russian pianist.
In 1874 the composer was made director of the Free School of Music at Petrograd, which position he filled until 1881. His second opera, “A Night in May,” was finished in 1878. He began another opera, “The Snow Maiden,” two years later. His operas, however, always attracted less attention abroad than his symphonies.
In 1883 he was appointed assistant director of the Imperial Chapel at Petrograd. This post was held by him for eleven years. Two years later he was offered the directorship of the Conservatory in Moscow, but he declined it. In 1886 he became director of the Russian symphony concerts. Three years later he appeared in Paris and conducted two concerts. He was enthusiastically received, and entertained at a banquet.
In 1894 Rimsky-Korsakov gave up the assistant directorship of the Imperial Chapel. He was now at work upon an opera in which the element of humor predominated. This was “Christmas Eve Revels.” It was produced at the Maryinsky Theater in Petrograd in 1895. Korsakov continued to work at opera, producing, among others, “Sadko,” “The Czar’s Betrothed,” “The Tale of Czar Saltan,” “Servilia,” “Kostchei the Deathless,” “Pan Voyvoda,” and “Kitej.” His last opera, “The Golden Cock,” was censored during the interval between its composition and the composer’s death. It was not until May, 1910, that it was produced at Moscow. It is supposed that chagrin at the fate of this opera contributed to the suddenness of Rimsky-Korsakov’s death, which occurred on June 20, 1908.
“In him we see,” says one writer, “the Russian who, though not by any means satisfied with Russia as he finds it, does not set himself to hurl a series of passionate but ineffective indictments against things as they are, but who raises an ideal and does his utmost to show how best that ideal may be attained.”
PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION
ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR, VOL. 4, No. 18, SERIAL No. 118
COPYRIGHT, 1916, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC.