Sunday, February 14, 2010

Procession of the Nobles, Rimsky-Korsakov-Christopher Ocasek, Conductor




One of a group known as "The Five" of great composers to come out of Russia on the latter part of the 19th Century (along with Alexander Borodin, Modest Moussorgsky,et al) Nicolai Rimsky Korsakov (1841-1908) was initially a naval officer who became an inspector general of Russian Naval bands and later a professor of music at the St. Petersburg Conservatory of Music.

This selection of music is from a ballet opera called "Mlada" (1890) , a work spawned from tales of Russian folklore that concerned murder, revenge, romance and the supernatural.

During the 1905 Revolution, he, like many left-leaning intellectuals, supported the students at St. Petersburg University and other activists in their demands for a reformed curriculum and a national Duma (legislature) to check the powers of the Czar and his ministers. The reactionary authorities got him fired from his professorship and 300 student-activists leaders dismissed.

But so great was the outrage and so intense was the overall General Strike that crippled urban Russia in late 1905 that Professor Rimsky-Korsakov was restored to his university and the people got their National "Duma".

11 comments:

  1. Glad you enjoyed this one Mary Ellen. This is an old favorite of mine.

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  2. I just love Rimsky-Korsakoff!! Such stirring music.... gives me chills. I do like a lot of other Russian composers, too -- especially Borodin.

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  3. Gosh... I feel like I can actually see the procession...

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  4. Thank you Doug, a wonderful piece of music, which without actually seeing the Ballet, paints a picture in the mind's eye. Rimsky Korsakov embraced Russian antiquity and folklore and brought it alive in another age.

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  5. We miss so much Russian art (whether written, composed, or painted) because of the Cold War, and the indoctrination we all received as kids that Russian = Bad.

    Thanks for this!

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  6. I think I can as well Christy. I remember hearing this one years ago played by my high school band. I had to go out and find it by an orchestra. This was my introduction to Russian music I suppose, after "Peter and the Wolf" of course.

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  7. It does almost bring one to their feet, Cassandra, its so stirring--you certainly expect someone important to come on stage. I can see why this would make great opera music.

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  8. You're right Astra. The only writers and musicians I remember as a kid hearing about much in the media were the emigres and dissidents. The mindset was the whole culture after 1917 was backward.


    I often wonder how many Americans, inadvertently listening to music like this might have said--"these people are capable of great art--they can't possibly be any less human than we are!"

    The same might have been said for Russians listening to Western jazz and groups like the Beatles. Who knows what music has accomplished without our ever knowing, to greater hopes for peace!

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  9. Very Russian sounding with those folk melodies running through the piece, great music Doug thanks for posting the clip

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  10. It is a very moving work I think, AA., and from my ears authentically Russian.

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