Marking the 180th anniversary of birth of Rimsky-Korsakov. “This remarkably gifted man is destined to become one of the best decorations of our art”

March 18, 2024 marks the 180th anniversary of the birth of the outstanding Russian composer, teacher, and music theorist Nikolai Andreevich Rimsky-Korsakov. His work is an integral part of not only Russian but also world culture. Music did not immediately become the main work of N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov’s life.

The future composer was born in Tikhvin on March 18 (March 6, old style) 1844. The first signs of musical ability appeared in him very early. The family had an old piano that my father played.

At the age of six, the boy began to learn to play the piano. According to Rimsky-Korsakov, he did not study music particularly diligently. However, having extraordinary musical abilities, he reached the point where he could independently “put down on paper what he played on the piano tolerably well”.

He liked reading. As he himself later wrote, he learned to read “jokingly”. Having an excellent memory, he memorized entire pages of the works that his mother read to him, word for word. Like all boys, he loved to play pranks: he climbed roofs and trees, made scenes, falling to the floor crying if he was punished. He was “captivated” by the idea of becoming a sailor, but by his own admission, he never dreamed of becoming a musician.

The parents decided to send the young man to the naval corps, since his uncle and brother were sailors. At the end of July 1856, the father took the boy to St. Petersburg to enter the Naval Cadet Corps.

In the autumn of 1860, Rimsky-Korsakov began studying piano with teacher Fyodor Canille.

In November 1861, Canille brought Rimsky-Korsakov to the circle of musician Miliy Balakirev, the “Mighty Handful”. It included Modest Mussorgsky, Alexander Borodin and Cesar Cui. Communication with musicians played an important role in Rimsky-Korsakov’s creative life. A year later, the aspiring composer took on his first major work, Symphony № 1.

In 1862, Rimsky-Korsakov graduated from the Naval Cadet Corps: “My graduation as a midshipman took place on April 8, 1862”. He received the title of midshipman upon completion of the school course; midshipmen were free people. Rimsky-Korsakov received his officer rank after two years of service.

The young man faced a three-year trip around the world on the Almaz clipper and a complete “separation from music”. While traveling, he reflected: “Having met the Balakirev circle, I began to dream of a musical path; I was encouraged and directed in a circle towards this road. At that time I was already really passionate about music”. 

Having returned from a trip around the world, Rimsky-Korsakov devoted himself entirely to music. In 1867 he wrote “Serbian Fantasy”. It was performed at one of the concerts of the Russian Musical Society. Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky described this event in his book Musical feuilletons and notes of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1898). The Presidential Library's portal features the dedicatory inscriptions of P. I. Tchaikovsky to N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov, made in 1885-1886 on the scores of Suite № 3 for orchestra and Symphony in four scenes “Manfred”.

The great musician Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky turned out to be right. Rimsky-Korsakov left behind a rich creative heritage. Fifteen operas, symphonic works, vocal compositions. In addition, N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov was active in teaching. In 1871 he became a professor at the St. Petersburg Conservatory. From 1873 to 1884 he was Inspector of Musical Choirs of the Naval Department, and from 1874 to 1881 he was Director of the Free Music School.

The electronic collections of the Presidential Library also contain letters from N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov to M. A. Vrubel, the author of scenery sketches for “The Tale of Tsar Saltan”, costumes for “Koshchei the Immortal” and to his wife, the outstanding singer N. I. Zabele-Vrubel. It was for her extraordinary voice that Rimsky-Korsakov wrote many musical masterpieces. Nadezhda Ivanovna became the ideal “Korsakov singer,” filling with spirituality the images of the Swan Princess, the Snow Maiden, the Sea Princess and other heroines of his operas. The Presidential Library's portal also contains materials from the correspondence between N. A. Rimsky-Korsukov and M. A. Balakirev, published in the magazine Musical Contemporary (1916), portrait photographs of the composer and other materials.