Composers of The Mighty Handful
The best musical traditions of M. I. Glinka were continued in the works of composers who entered the history of Russian musical culture under the name “The Mighty Handful”. The creative community of composers was represented by such names as M. A. Balakirev (1836 / 37-1910), C. A. Cui (1835-1918), M. P. Mussorgsky (1839-1881), A. P. Borodin ( 1833-1887) and N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908).
The organizer and ideological inspirer of this friendly union, created in the late 1850s, was Miliy Alekseevich Balakirev, a wonderful pianist and composer who managed to unite around himself not only music lovers, but also talented performers and composers. His extraordinary abilities, excellent performing and artistic skills, versatile musical knowledge and sharp, perceptive mind delighted and provided him with unshakable authority.
M. A. Balakirev is the author of many wonderful works. He created music for Shakespeare’s tragedy “King Lear” (1858-1861), symphonic poems “Tamara” (1882) to verses by M. Yu. Lermontov, “Rus” (1887) and “In the Czech Republic” (1905), “Spanish Overture “(1886),” Overture on Themes of Three Russian Songs “(1858). For the piano, his favorite musical instrument, he created the magnificent piano oriental fantasy “Islamey” (1869), inspired by the impressions of his travels in the Caucasus. Forty romances (“Georgian Song”, “Song of Selim”, “Song of the Goldfish”), sonatas, mazurkas, nocturnes and waltzes, collections of Russian songs are the composer’s best achievements.
Alexander Porfirevich Borodin, being a great scientist-chemist, devoted all his time to scientific research. By his own admission, he only had to compose music during his illness. The composer’s musical creative heritage is small, but his contribution to the development of Russian musical culture is significant. Borodin’s works are the glory and pride of Russian music. They are distinguished by their heroic scope and epic grandeur, bright colors and amazing simplicity. These are 3 classical symphonies (1867, 1876 (Bogatyrskaya) and 1887), chamber music, 15 romances to verses by Russian poets (among them a romance to Pushkin’s poems “For the shores of a distant motherland”, 1881) should be mentioned.
The only opera “Prince Igor” (1869-1887), on the creation of which Borodin worked for 18 years, became one of the brightest achievements of Russian opera. The basis for its creation was the outstanding monument of Old Russian literature “The Lay of Igor’s Host”, written at the end of the 12th century. After the death of the composer, the opera was completed by his friends, N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov and A. K. Glazunov. The brilliant success of the premiere at the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg in 1890 only confirmed A.P. Borodin’s exceptional place in the history of Russian musical culture.
The creative legacy of Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky, one of the outstanding Russian composers of the 19th century, is immense and unique. His short life was marked by outstanding works in the field of symphonic and operatic music. After graduating from the school of warrant officers, he gave up a brilliant military career and in 1858 he retired with the only thought – to devote himself entirely to music.
Musorgsky’s work developed under the influence of Russian folk song and the best traditions of folk art. According to the composer, music is designed to reflect the real life of an ordinary person with all its joys and hardships. The truth of life has become the composer’s creative motto. It was no coincidence that he emphasized:
“Life, wherever it affects; truth, no matter how salty; bold, sincere speech to people … this is my leaven, this is what I want and this is what I would be afraid to miss. “
One by one, he creates a whole series of musical masterpieces that mark a new era in the history of musical art. Mussorgsky’s first major program work was the symphony “Night on Bald Mountain” (1867) based on folk tales about the mysterious night on the eve of Ivan Kupala’s day, when evil spirits are especially dangerous. In music, he managed to embody those folk beliefs that he had heard more than once in childhood.
Of undoubted interest is the large piano suite Pictures at an Exhibition (1874), created under the impression of the posthumous exhibition of the artist and architect VA Hartman (1834-1873), one of the composer’s closest friends. In the shortest possible time, in just three weeks, he wrote ten piano pieces, united by one common idea. Joyful and light motives here are intertwined with sorrowful and anxious moods. Colorful musical sketches of the Limoges market, Roman catacombs, huts on chicken legs are replaced by the solemn play “Heroic Gate”, glorifying the strength and power of Russian knights. The ringing of bells and choral chants give the music a particularly solemn character.
Mussorgsky’s song-romance works were very popular. More than once he turned to the famous works of Russian poets, and he himself composed poetic texts. His songs to the verses of N. A. Nekrasov “Kalistrat” and “Eremushka’s Lullaby” are still loved among the people. In recent years he has written a wonderful satirical song “Bloch”, which became especially famous thanks to the masterful performance of F. I. Shalyapin.
Mussorgsky went down in the history of Russian and world musical culture as the author of two major operas – Boris Godunov (1869-1872) and Khovanshchina (1872-1880), in which he refers to the historical past of the Russian people. In the preface to the publication of the score for the opera Boris Godunov, Mussorgsky wrote:
“I understand the people as a great person, animated by a single idea.”
These words of the composer became the key to understanding his main creative tasks. Operas laid the foundation for the development of the so-called “folk musical drama”. They recreate the flavor of a distant historical era, the people for the first time become a true hero, and not a background on which the action unfolds. Mussorgsky also owns the comic opera Sorochinskaya Yarmarka (1874-1880), based on the story of the same name by NV Gogol. Determining the world significance of Mussorgsky’s work, D. D. Shostakovich wrote:
“The beneficial influence of our great composer has long gone beyond the borders of Russia, it largely determines the most advanced trends in world musical art.”
A bright page of Russian musical culture of the 19th century. associated with the work of Nikolai Andreevich Rimsky-Korsakov. The beginning of his musical career was brilliant. In 1867 he painted the symphonic picture “Sadko” based on the famous Novgorod epic. Pictures of the city life of the Lord of Veliky Novgorod are recreated in the “fairy tale-unbelievable” (this is how the composer himself defined its genre). They are replaced by the amazing adventures of the guslar Sadko in the domain of the Sea King. The image of the ocean is majestic: now serenely calm, now powerful and formidable, ready at any moment to burst into an indomitable sea element. Sadko’s chimes are mesmerizing and enchanting all the inhabitants of the underwater kingdom: carefree goldfish dance in tune with the music, guests at the feast of the Sea Tsar start to dance in a merry way, and a festive magnificient song sounds.Suddenly, a sharp thunderous chord is heard – this is Sadko breaking the strings on the harp … The wonderful music of N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov left no one indifferent.
A year later, the composer wrote the symphonic picture Antar (1868) based on Arab folk tales. Oriental flavor was conveyed in it with amazing color and clarity. Visible pictures of the dull Arabian desert, the flight of a giant fantastic bird, the marvelous image of Peri Gul-Nazar – a good sorceress, a fierce battle and the blissful death of Antar in the arms of his beloved were remembered for a long time by the audience.
Later, in 1888, Rimsky-Korsakov again turned to oriental motives in the “Scheherazade” suite based on medieval Arabic tales from the famous collection “A Thousand and One Nights”. Each of the four parts of the suite told about the amazing, magical adventures of seafarers and wonderful events at sea and on land. The light, captivating music of the harp and the lonely violin created the image of the main character, a young and beautiful storyteller of Sheherazade’s tales.
The romantic period in the work of Rimsky-Korsakov was not so long, he was attracted by the heroic pages of the historical past of the Russian people. In 1872, he created the first opera “The Woman of Pskov” based on a play by the poet and playwright L. A. Mey (1822-1862). The epoch of the reign of Ivan the Terrible, anxiety, an intense dramatic struggle of feelings, the elements of the Russian freemen, the indomitability of popular anger are conveyed in the music of the opera. Pictures from the life of the tsar’s oprichnik in the same historical era were recreated in the opera “The Tsar’s Bride” (1898).
More than once Rimsky-Korsakov will turn to history. The opera “The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh” (1904) reflects the events of the cruel times of the Mongol invasion of the Russian lands. The image of the invisible and inaccessible to the enemies of the great city of Kitezh symbolized the dreams of the Russian people for a peaceful and happy life. The famous symphonic intermission “Sich at Kerzhenets” has become perhaps the best musical depiction of a battle in the history of world musical culture. The poetic image of the Russian woman Fevronia, created with the help of smooth, solemn melodies, revealed the deep moral and philosophical problems of this work.
The world of Russian folk tales has always attracted Rimsky-Korsakov. Of the 15 operas, seven are dedicated to fairytale and legendary plots: The Snow Maiden, the daughter of Frost and Spring, who wanted to live among people (The Snow Maiden, 1881), about Tsar Saltan and the Swan Princess (The Tale of Tsar Saltan …, 1900), about Tsar Dadon and the Shamakhan queen (“The Golden Cockerel”, 1907), about the evil Kashchey (“Kashchei the Immortal”, 1902).
Artistic works of Russian writers more than once inspired N.A.Rimsky-Korsakov to create operas. The stories of N. V. Gogol, one of the composer’s favorite writers, served as a source for writing the operas “May Night” (1879) and “The Night Before Christmas” (1895). Romantic pictures of the wonderful Ukrainian nature, unusually bright everyday scenes, colored with subtle humor, cheerful dance and charming lullaby melodies distinguish these opera works. Opera “Mozart and Salieri” (1897) based on the tragedy of Alexander Pushkin is addressed to the most complex human feelings and experiences. The main idea of Pushkin’s work, expressed in Mozart’s words that “genius and villainy are two things incompatible”, was masterfully embodied in music.
The romance work of Rimsky-Korsakov also received universal recognition. He owns about eighty works of this genre on the verses of A. Pushkin, A. N. Maikov, A. K. Tolstoy. Among them are such masterpieces as “The Flying Ridge Thinning Clouds”, “Rainy Day Has Extinct”, “Not the Wind Blowing from the Heights” and others.
