When was rimsky born

In , the year his daughter Sonia was born and his wife suffered a long illness, he began the editing and correction of Glinka's extant manuscripts, of which no definitive edition had been attempted since his death. By this time Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, now fully at ease with his own musical knowledge and techniques, had renewed his mission to bring more nationalistic traits into his music. These are very noticeable in the two operas which appeared next, May Night and The Snow Maiden , both of which dealt with specifically Russian themes and used old modes, folk-like melodies and nationalistic rhythms and scoring.

The death of Mussorgsky in found Rimsky-Korsakov once more realizing another composer's scores, spending nearly two years deleting, rescoring and editing the musical fragments and completed works he found among Mussorgsky's effects. This work, today somewhat controversial due to the extent to which Rimsky-Korsakov departed from what Mussorgsky had composed, undoubtedly brought the composer's works into sharp focus in the public eye in the decades following his death.

Without Rimsky-Korsakov's reworking at Boris for example, the opera would not have achieved its status as a national treasure by the turn of the century. Equally, it was Rimsky-Korsakov who made the first orchestral version of the piano work Pictures at an Exhibition , bringing it to the attention at concert-goers world-wide.

This led both of them into utterly unfamiliar territory, preparing choral music for the coronation and other important occasions. A favorite new prodigy, Alexander "Sasha" Glazunov, was the young composer-acolyte who came to Rimsky-Korsakov's aid in when the sudden death of Borodin left him with yet another disorganized heap of priceless unfinished compositions to put in order.

Their major achievements were the performing version of Prince Igor and the realization of Borodin's unfinished Third Symphony, one movement of which Glazunov wrote down apparently from memory, having once heard Borodin play it on the piano. This peak in his middle years was achieved - as he himself commented - "without Wagner's influence".

In the year after their return to St. Petersburg his family was struck by illness: first his mother died, then his wife and three of his children fell seriously ill, one of them dying while a second, Masha, remained critical. In summer , the composer suffered what seems to have been a nervous breakdown, and was forced to take a prolonged break from music. In he had to deal with further illness, his son taking months to recover from a dangerous infection, while Masha continued to ail from consumption, dying that summer in Yalta.

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov had retired, but in the spring of his musical muse returned, and he began working on Christmas Eve , the first of a series of operas which would monopolize his creative interest until his death. This first manifestation was successfully premiered in With Piotr Ilyitch Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky and Borodin all dead, Rimsky-Korsakov was unchallenged as the leading living Russian composer, and used his position both to promote his own operas and to forward the career of those composers in whose talents he firmly believed, such as Glazunov.

Buoyed by the relative ease of his composition of Christmas Eve , Rimsky-Korsakov next plunged into the legend of Sadko , completing an opera on it in It is in many ways his most accomplished opera and was very popular during his lifetime. After this, there was seldom a period when he was not devising, or working upon, his next opera, with The Tsar's Bride and Mozart and Salieri both completed before the end of the decade.

Petersburg Naval Academy at the age of About Kanille introduced the young cadet to the circle of talented dilettantes who depended on Mili Balakirev for professional advice and guidance. From through Rimsky-Korsakov cruised around the world with the Russian navy. His First Symphony, composed during this trip, was performed upon his return by Balakirev, who conducted the orchestra of the Free Music School, which he had founded.

Rimsky-Korsakov now devoted less time to navy affairs. He composed the symphonic poem Sadko , returning to the theme much later for an opera, and the Second Antar Symphony In he became a professor at the St. Petersburg Conservatory, and in he resigned his naval commission.

From to he directed the Free School, and he served as director of navy bands until He became convinced of the need for professional training, professional mastery, and a professional attitude. Following the production of May Night, in , Rimsky-Korsakov began work on Snow Maiden, based on Nikolai Ostrovsky's poetic retelling of a Slavic myth, which was performed in Saddened by Mussorgsky 's death, in , Rimsky-Korsakov devoted himself to editing his friend's unpublished manuscripts.

A master orchestrator, Rimsky-Korsakov felt obliged to help colleagues whose manuscripts needed revision. Having composed these resplendent works, however, Rimsky-Korsakov went through a period of despondency; there were deaths in his family, and, in , Tchaikovsky died. The composer's subsequent works recreated the rich world of Russian myths and legends. Sadko, completed in , conjured up a medieval Russian legend.

In , Rimsky-Korsakov blended the legend of Kitezh and the story of St. Fevroniya to create a complex Christian-pantheistic narrative. Completed in , the year when the politically progressive composer was temporarily dismissed from this teaching post, The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh and the Maiden, was produced in Rimsky-Korsakov 's last opera, The Golden Cockerel, completed in , was inspired by a politically subversive story by Alexander Pushkin.

The production of this work was a struggle, because the subject matter aroused suspicions among government censors. The opera was finally produced, in , the year following the composer's death, by a private opera company in Moscow.

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