The border nationalists: Alexander Glazounoff, Liadoff, Liapounoff, etc.—The renaissance of Russian church music: Kastalsky and Gretchaninoff—The new eclectics: Arensky, Taneieff, Ippolitoff-Ivanoff, Glière, Rachmaninoff and others—Scriabine and the radical foreign influence; Igor Stravinsky.
I
The influence of the 'neo-Russian' group did not continue in any direct line. There is to-day no one representing the tendency in all its purity. But there are a number of composers, originally pupils or satellites of the Balakireff circle, who have carried something of the nationalistic tendency into their style. Chief of these, perhaps, is Alexander Constantinovich Glazounoff, one of the most facile and brilliant of contemporary Russian writers for the orchestra. His early career was brilliant in the extreme. He was born in St. Petersburg on August 10, 1865, of an old and well-known family of publishers. In his childhood he received excellent musical education and showed precocious talents. At the age of fifteen he attracted the notice and received the advice of Balakireff, who urged further study, and two years later his first symphony was performed at a concert of the Free School. In the following year he entered the university, continuing the lessons he had begun under Rimsky-Korsakoff. The first symphony attracted the attention of Liszt, who conducted it in 1884 at Weimar, and to whom a second symphony, finished in 1886, was dedicated. Smaller works written at this time show vivid pictorial and national tendencies. In 1889 Glazounoff conducted a concert of Russian works, including his own, at the Paris exposition, and was honored by the performance of a new symphonic poem of his—Stenka Razin—in Berlin. The following years brought more narrative or pictorial works—the orchestral fantasias 'The Forest' and 'The Sea,' the symphonic sketch 'A Slavonic Festival,' an 'Oriental Rhapsody,' a symphonic tableau, 'The Kremlin,' and the ballet 'Raymonda.'
The last, which was finished in 1897, may be taken as marking the end of Glazounoff's period of youthful romanticism. His work thereafter was less bound to story or picture, more self-contained and notable for architectural development. There are seven symphonies already to be recorded, together with a violin concerto of the utmost brilliancy, though of classical design. Among the other works of the later period should be mentioned the Symphonic Prologue 'In Memory of Gogol,' a Finnish fantasia, performed at Helsingfors in 1910; the symphonic suite, 'The Middle Ages'; and another ballet, 'The Seasons.' There is also not a little chamber music distinguished in form and execution, and a quantity of songs of facile and graceful quality. Glazounoff is now director of the St. Petersburg Conservatory.
Obviously his early ideals were much influenced by Rimsky-Korsakoff and by Balakireff, from whom he gained his first distinguished encouragement. He responded to the romantic appeal of mediæval and national fairy stories. He felt the grandeur of the sea and the poetry of heroic legends. Thus in Stenka Razin he tells of the Cossack brigand whose death was foretold by his captive Persian princess and who sacrificed her in expiation of his sins to the river Volga. But it is evident that this romantic influence was not lasting. What he chiefly learned from Rimsky-Korsakoff was not the picturing of nature or of legendary beings, but the manipulation of the orchestra with the utmost of brilliancy. In his later works this becomes only technical virtuosity, dazzling but somewhat empty. His travels in foreign lands impressed foreign ideals upon him. When we have given due credit to his thoroughness of workmanship, his sensitive regard for form and balance, the pregnant beauty of many of his themes, we still feel that he is only a sublimated salon composer.
Anatol Constantinovich Liadoff is another of Rimsky-Korsakoff's pupils who has shown little enthusiasm for a distinctly nationalistic music. He was born in St. Petersburg on April 29, 1855, of a musical family, both his father and his uncle being members of the artistic staff of the opera. He entered the violin class of the conservatory and was chosen for Rimsky-Korsakoff's class in composition. His graduation cantata was so fine that he was invited to become a teacher, and has remained with the institution ever since. In 1893 he was appointed with Liapounoff to undertake the collection of Russian folk-songs initiated by the Imperial Geographical Society. His genius has shown itself chiefly in the smaller forms, in which he has produced pieces for the piano distinguished for perfection of form. His songs, especially those for children, have had a wide popularity. There are a certain number of genre pieces for the piano (e. g., 'In the Steppes,' opus 23) and numerous pieces in the well known smaller forms, such as preludes, études, and dances. The symphonic scherzo, Baba Yaga, telling of the pranks of an old witch of children's folk-lore, is one of his ablest works. We should also mention the orchestral legend, entitled 'The Enchanted Lake,' opus 62; the 'Amazon's Dance,' opus 65; and the 'Last Scene from Schiller's "Bride of Messina,"' opus 28, for mixed chorus and orchestra.
Sergei Mikhailovich Liapounoff was born on November 18, 1859, at Yaroslav, and studied at the Imperial School of Music at Nijny-Novgorod and at the Moscow Conservatory. Later he came under the influence of Balakireff, who conducted the first performance of his 'Concert Overture.' For some years he was assistant conductor at the Imperial Chapel at St. Petersburg. He is best known by his piano pieces, chiefly the fine Concerto in E flat minor, and the tremendously difficult Études. His numerous lighter pieces for piano, among which are the Divertissements, opus 35, have become exceedingly popular. His songs show a strong national or oriental influence. His orchestral compositions include a symphony, opus 12, the 'Solemn Overture on a Russian Theme,' opus 7, and a symphonic poem, opus 37. Mention should also be made of his rhapsody on Ukranian airs for piano and orchestra, which is a further proof of his sensitive feeling for folk-song.
Vasili Sergeievich Kallinikoff, born in 1866 in the department of Orloff, was at the time of his death in 1900 one of the most promising of the then younger Russian composers. He studied for eight years in the school of the Moscow Philharmonic Society, and upon his graduation became assistant conductor of the Moscow Private Opera. The oncoming of consumption, however, forced him to take up his residence in the Caucasus. His most extraordinary work was the first symphony, in the key of G minor, which was finished in 1895 and went begging for performance until it was given several years later in Kieff. Since then it has figured as one of the most popular of Russian orchestral works. The second symphony, in A major, is less distinguished. His other orchestral works, showing great talent and considerable national feeling, include two 'symphonic scenes,' 'The Nymphs' and 'The Cedars,' and the incidental music to Alexander Tolstoy's play, 'Czar Boris,' written for its performance at the Moscow Art Theatre in 1899. There is also a cantata, Ivan Damaskin, and a ballad, Roussalka, for solo, chorus and orchestra. Kallinikoff also left some songs, chamber music and piano pieces. A marked originality is revealed in his best work, but it was still immature when his final illness put an end to creative activity.
A. Spendiaroff is loosely associated with the neo-nationalists and has acquired some little popularity with his orchestral works, 'The Three Palms' and the 'Caucasian Sketches.' He shows a marked talent of a pictorial order, and felicity in the invention of expressive melody. But his technique is that of an age past, his method rings always true to the conventional, and his musical content sounds all too reminiscent. Ossip Ivanovich Wihtol, born in 1863 at Volnar, near the Baltic Sea, has gained a distinctive position for himself as a worker with Lettish themes. He was educated at the St. Petersburg Conservatory and studied composition under Rimsky-Korsakoff. Until 1908 he was a teacher of theory in this institution. His best works are those which are connected with Lettish folk-music, notably the Symphonic Tableau, opus 4; the Orchestral Suite, opus 29; and the Fantasia for violin, opus 42. We should also mention the 'Dramatic Overture' and the Spriditis overture, the piano sonata, a string quartet, and a number of songs and choruses—some a cappella and some with orchestral accompaniment.