| Russian composer and musical theorist,
one of the greatest composers of the Russian nationalist school. Rimsky-Korsakov
was born in Tikhvin. In 1861 he became an associate of Russian composer
Mily Balakirev, the dominant figure of a group of young, nationally
conscious Russian composers called The Five. Rimsky-Korsakov is remembered
today more for the brilliance of his instrumentation than for the originality
of his musical ideas. His influence as an orchestrator was exercised directly
on his pupils, notably Russian composers
Igor Stravinsky and
Aleksandr
Glazunov, and indirectly through his treatise The Foundations of Instrumentation
(1913). Rimsky-Korsakov's works include the operas Snow Maiden (1880-1881)
and The Golden Cockerel (1906-1907), and the symphonic works Capriccio
Espagnol (1887), Scheherazade (1888), and the Russian Easter Overture
(1888). |