Grove's dictionary of music and musicians

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EIMSKY-KORSAKOV RIMSKY-KOESAKOV 103
inspector of naval bands, a post which he held
until it was abolished in 1884. From 1883 to
1884 he was assistant director to the Court
Chapel under Balakirev. Succeeding to Balakirev,
he became director and conductor of the
Free School Concerts from 1874 to 1881, and
conducted the Russian Symphony Concerts,
inaugurated in St. Petersburg by Belaiey, from
1886 to 1900. His gifts in tliis respect,
although ignored in England, have been highly
appreciated in Paris and Brussels. Rimsky-
Korsakoy's career has remained closely associated
with St. Petersburg, which was the scene
of his earliest successes, and on more than one
occasion he has declined the directorship of
the Moscow Conservatoire. His pupils number
some distinguished names : Liadov, Ippolitov-
Ivanov, Sacchetti, Grechianinov, and Glazounov
have all studied under him for longer or shorter
periods. In 1873 Rimsky-Korsakov married
Nadejda Nicholaevna Pourgold, a gifted pianist,
who proved a helpmeet in the truest sense of
the word. This lady and her sister, A. P.
Molas, have played important parts in the
history of the modem Russian school ; the
former by her clever pianoforte arrangements
of many of the great orchestral works, while
the latter, gifted with a fine voice and dramatic
instinct, created most of the leading female
rSles in the operatic works of Cui, Moussorgsky,
and Borodin, before they obtained a hearing at
the Imperial Opera.
Rimsky-Korsakov had already composed his
symphonic works 'Sadko' and 'Antar,' and
his opera ' Pskovitianka,' and had been appointed
professor at the St. Petersburg Conservatoire,
when his ' ideal conscientiousness
awoke in him some doubts as to the solidity
of his early musical education. Admirably as
the system of self-education had worked in his
case, he still felt it a duty to undergo a severe
course of theoretical study in order to have at
his disposal that supreme mastery of technical
means in which all the great classical masters
excelled. Accordingly he began to work at
fugue and counterpoint, thereby calling forth
from Tchaikovsky, in 1875, this tribute of admiration
: I do not know how to express all
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my respect for your artistic temperament. . . .
I am a mere artisan in music, but you will be
an artist in the fullest sense of the word.'
Most of Rimsky-Korsakov's early works have
been revised since this period of artistic discipline.
In the earlier phases of his career he
was obviously influenced by Glinka and Liszt,
and in a lesser degree by Schumann and Berlioz.
The imitative period was, however, of short
duration, and perhaps no contemporary composer
can boast a more individual and distinctive
utterance than Rimsky-Korsakov. But its distinctiveness
lies in extreme refinement and
restraint rather than in violent and sensational
expression. He wins but does not force our
attention. A lover of musical beauty rather
than musical truth—or, to put it more justly,
believing truth to lie in idealistic rather than
realistic methods of creation, he was never
deeply influenced by the declamatory and natu-,
ralistic style of Dargomijsky and Moussorgsky.
Like Tchaikovsky, he has divided his career
between operatic and symphonic music, but
with a steadily Increasing tendency towards the
former. After his first symphony, written on
more or less conventional lines, ie showed a
distinct prrference fQi^_the freer forms of programme
music, as shown injthe symphonic poem
'Sadko,' the Oriental Suite 'Antar,' and the
Symphonic Suite ' Scheherezade. ' In the Sinfonietta
upon Russian themes, and the Third
Symphony in C major, he returns to more
traditional treatment. Of all his orchestral
works the Spanish Capriceio seems to have met
with the greatest appreciation in England.
Almost without exception Rimsky-Korsakov's
symphonic works are distinguished by a poetic
and tactful expression of national sentiment.
His art is rooted in the Russian soil, and the
national element pervades it like a subtle but
unmistakable aroma. We may be repelled or
fascinated by it, according to individual taste,
but we are forced to recognise that this is
not mere local colour laid on by a coarse brush
to give factitious and sensational interest to
music which would be otherwise commonplace
in character, but an essential product of the
national spirit.
His music invariably carries the charm of
expressive orchestration. Taking it up where
Glinka left it in his ' Jota Aragonese ' and incidental
music to Prince Kholmsky,' Rimsky-
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Korsakov has developed this characteiistio
quality of Russian musicians beyond any of his
contemporaries, without, however, overstepping
the bounds of what sane minds must still regard
as legitimate efliect. He is at his best in
descriptive orchestration—in the suggestion of
landscape and atmospheric conditions. But
his clear objective outlook
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leads him to a
luminous and definite tone-painting quite different
from the subtle and dreamy impressionism
of Debussy. The musical pictures of Rimsky-
Korsakov are mostly riant and sunny,; sometimes
breezy and boisterous, as in the sea-musio
of Sadko ' ' and ' Scheherezade '
; often full of
a quaint pastoral grace, as in the springtide
music in his opera 'The Snow Maiden.' His
harmony has freshness and individuality. He
makes considerable use of the old Chuich modes
and Oriental scales.
All Rimsky-Korsakov's operM, except 'Mozart
and Salieri,' are based upon national subjects,
historical or legendary. Tales from the Slavonic
mythology, which combine poetical allegory with
fantastichumour, exercise the greatest attraction
for him. In his first opera, 'The Maid of Pskov,
he evidently started under the partial influence