Rimsky-Korsakov Home
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
(1844 - 1908)
Rimsky-KorsaKov Video Links
Flight of the Bumblebee with 8 Pianos
Now HERE is something different! Have a view! 8 PIANOS!!!!
Gergiev conducting Scheherazade
Here is one of my favorite conductors, V. Gergiev, conducting the Kirov Symphony. Wow! He is a madman. One of the most famous halls in Russia…..What a great performance! If you think I get animated on the podium, you haven’t seen anything! Very unusual conducting style! You like?
Ormandy conducting Scheherazade
One of the greatest conductors of the century, Eugene Ormandy, conducting the first movement of Scheherazade. You don’t have to be a madman to be one of the great conductors of all time….
Flight of the Bumblebee for Oboe
Didn’t I say that Flight of the Bumble-Bee was arranged for EVERY instrument?
Maestro Gergiev conducts this very moving performance of one of Rimsky-Korsakov’s most popular orchestral works, which is based on themes from the Russian Orthodox liturgy. Note that his conducting style is a little more reserved in this excerpt!
Masur conducts Scheherazade, 2nd movement
The great German conductor Kurt Masur in a riveting performance of the The Kalendar Prince.
Audio Selections
Major Works by Rimsky-Korsakov
(Note: Dates given are for the first versions: Rimsky-Korsakov revised many of his works)
OPERAS:
The Maid of Pskov (1872)
May Night (1879)
Snow Maiden (1881)
May Night (1879)
Christmas Eve (1895)
Mozart and Salieri (1897)
The Tsar’s Bride (1898)
The Tale of Tsar Saltan (1900)
Kashchey the Immortal (1902)
Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh (1905)
The Golden Cockerel (1907)
ORCHESTRAL WORKS:
Symphony no. 1 (1865)
Symphony no. 2 (1868)
Symphony no. 3 (1873)
Trombone Concerto (1877)
Capriccio espanole (1887)
Scheherazade (1888)
Russian Easter Overture (1888)
The Tale of Tsar Saltan (1903)
Pan Voyevoda (1903)
Suite from Christmas Eve (1903)
Rimsky-Korsakov also composed numerous
works for chorus, as well as many songs, and
a handful of piano and chamber works.
Scheherazade
PROGRAM NOTES AND COMMENTARY
“In the middle of winter [of 1888], engrossed as I was in my work on Prince Igor and other things, I conceived the idea of writing an orchestral composition on the subject of certain episodes from Scheherazade.” Thus did Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov give the curt explanation of the genesis of his most famous work in his autobiography, My Musical Life. His friend Alexander Borodin had died the year before, leaving his magnum opus, the opera Prince Igor, in a state of unfinished disarray. Rimsky-Korsakov had taken it upon himself to complete the piece, and may well have been inspired by its exotic setting among the Tartar tribes in 12th-century central Asia to undertake his own embodiment of musical Orientalism.
CYS Performance History
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Nov. 1993 -
Jun. 1994
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Mar. 2001
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Nov. 2007
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Jun. / Jul. 2008
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Nov. 2013