The
Russian Symphony Concerts were a series of Russian classical music concerts hosted by timber magnate and musical philanthropist
Mitrofan BelyayevMitrofan Petrovich Belyayev was a Russian music publisher, outstanding philanthropist, and the owner of a large wood dealership enterprise in Russia...
in
St. PetersburgSaint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city's other names were Petrograd and Leningrad...
as a forum for young Russian composers to have their orchestral works performed. While a number of works by these composers were performed, pieces written by composers of the previous generation such as
Nikolai Rimsky-KorsakovNikolai Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov , also Nikolay, Nicolai, and Rimsky-Korsakoff, was a Russian composer, and a member of the group of composers known as "The Five." Noted particularly for a predilection for folk and fairy-tale subjects as well as his extraordinary skill in orchestration, his...
and Mili Balakirev were also played there.
The idea for the Russian Symphony Concerts was actually Rimsky-Korsakov's.
The
Russian Symphony Concerts were a series of Russian classical music concerts hosted by timber magnate and musical philanthropist
Mitrofan BelyayevMitrofan Petrovich Belyayev was a Russian music publisher, outstanding philanthropist, and the owner of a large wood dealership enterprise in Russia...
in
St. PetersburgSaint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city's other names were Petrograd and Leningrad...
as a forum for young Russian composers to have their orchestral works performed. While a number of works by these composers were performed, pieces written by composers of the previous generation such as
Nikolai Rimsky-KorsakovNikolai Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov , also Nikolay, Nicolai, and Rimsky-Korsakoff, was a Russian composer, and a member of the group of composers known as "The Five." Noted particularly for a predilection for folk and fairy-tale subjects as well as his extraordinary skill in orchestration, his...
and Mili Balakirev were also played there.
Inception
The idea for the Russian Symphony Concerts was actually Rimsky-Korsakov's. He had become acquainted with Belyayev at the weekly "quartet Fridays" ("Les Vendredis") held at Belayev's home. Belayev had already taken a keen interest in the musical future of the teenage
Alexander GlazunovAlexander Konstantinovich Glazunov was a Russian composer of the late Russian Romantic period, music teacher and conductor...
, who had been one of Rimsky-Korsakov's composition students. In 1884, Belayev rented out a hall and hired an orchestra to play Glazunov's First Symphony plus an orchestral suite Glazunov had just composed. Glazunov was to conduct part of this concert. Seeing he was not ready to do this, Rimsky-Korsakov volunteered to take his place. This "rehearsal," as Rimsky-Korsakov called it, went well and pleased both Belayev and the invited audience. Buoyed by the success of the rehearsal, Belayev decided the following season to give a public concert of works by Glazunov and other composers.
Rimsky-Korsakov's piano concertoNikolai Rimsky-Korsakov composed his Piano Concerto in C sharp minor between 1882 and 1883. It was first performed in March 1884 at one of Mili Balakirev's Free Music School concerts in St...
was played, along with Glazunov's symphonic poem
Stenka RazinStenka Razin, Op. 13, is a symphonic poem composed by Alexander Glazunov in 1885. Dedicated to the memory of Alexander Borodin, it is one of the few compositions written by Glazunov on a nationalist subject and is composed in a style reminiscent of Borodin and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.Glazunov's...
.
Both the rehearsal the previous year and this concert gave Rimsky-Korsakov the idea of offering several concerts per year featuring Russian compositions. The number of orchestral compositions was growing, and there were always difficulties in having the
Russian Musical SocietyThe Russian Musical Society was an organisation founded in 1859 by the Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna and her protégé, pianist and composer Anton Rubinstein, with the intent of raising the standard of music in the country and disseminating musical education.Rubinstein and the Grand Duchess's...
and other organizations program them. Rimsky-Korsakov mentioned the idea to Belayev. Belayev liked it, inaugurating the Russian Symphony Concerts during the 1886-1887 season. Rimsky-Korsakov shared conducting duties for these concerts. Glazunov was appointed conductor for the series in 1896. The following year, he led the disastrous premiere of
RachmaninoffSergei Vasilievich Rachmaninoff was a Russian composer, pianist, and conductor. He was one of the finest pianists of his day and, as a composer, the last great representative of Russian late Romanticism in classical music...
's
Symphony No 1Sergei Rachmaninoff wrote his Symphony No. 1 in D minor, Op. 13 at Ivanovka, an estate near Tambov, Russia, between January and October 1895...
. While Glazunov's conducting skills were not especially strong and he used his rehearsal time poorly, his
alcoholismAlcoholism is a term with multiple and sometimes conflicting definitions. In common and historic usage, alcoholism is any condition that results in the continued consumption of alcoholic beverages, despite health problems and negative social consequences...
may have contributed to the debacle.
Factionalism
In 1885, the year before the concert series was inaugurated, Belyayev started his own publishing house in
LeipzigLeipzig is, with a population of 515,459, the largest city in the federal state of Saxony, Germany.-Origins:Leipzig's name is derived from the Slavic word Lipsk, which means "settlement where the lime trees stand"....
,
GermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
. He initially printed music by Glazunov, Anatoly Lyadov Rimsky-Korsakov and
Alexander BorodinAlexander Porfiryevich Borodin was a Russian Romantic composer of Georgian-Russian parentage who made his living as a chemist. He was a member of the group of composers called The Five , who were dedicated to producing a specifically Russian kind of art music...
at his own expense. Young composers started appealing for his help. To help select from their offerings for publication—and later for performance in the Russian Symphony Concerts—Belayev asked Rimsky-Korsakovf, Glazunov and Lyadov to serve together on an advisory council.The group of composers that formed eventually became known at the
Belyayev circleThe Belyayev circle was a society of Russian musicians, based in St. Petersburg, founded by timber merchant and philanthropist Mitrofan Belyayev in the 1880s, and whose members included Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Alexander Glazunov and Anatoly Lyadov...
.
For all of Belyayev's good intentions at fostering musical talent, his efforts helped fuel the long rivalry between St Petersburg and
MoscowMoscow is the capital and the largest city of Russia. It is also the largest metropolitan area in Europe, and ranks among the largest urban areas in the world. Moscow is a major political, economic, cultural, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the world, a...
. Moreover, since Rimsky-Korsakov had taught many of the musicians who made up the Belyayev circle at the
ConservatoryThe N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov Saint Petersburg State Conservatory is a music school in Saint Petersburg. In 2004, the conservatory had around 275 faculty members and 1,400 students.-History :...
there, it became an unwritten law that for a composer to receive Belyayev's patronage, including performances of his compositions, he had to write in a musical style approved by Glazunov, Lyadov and Rimsky-Korsakov. Because of this, Rimsky-Korsakov's style became the preferred academic style—one that young composers had to follow if they hoped to have any sort of career. Those who opposed the Belyayev circle did not fail to notice this bias. Rachmaninoff's First Symphony may have run afoul of the Belayev circle on both these counts. Like the
kuchkaThe Five, also known as The Mighty Handful , refers to a circle of composers who met in Saint Petersburg, Russia, in the years 1856-1870: Mily Balakirev , César Cui, Modest Mussorgsky, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, and Alexander Borodin...
which preceded it, the Belayev group viewed with suspicion those compositions which did not follow its canon.
Works premiered
Some of the works currently best known as "Russian music" were first presented at the Russian Symphony Concerts. Rimsky-Korsakov finished his revision of
Modest MussorgskyModest Petrovich Mussorgsky , one of the Russian composers known as the Five, was an innovator of Russian music in the romantic period...
's
Night on Bald MountainNight on Bald Mountain is a composition by Modest Mussorgsky that exists in at least two versions — a seldom performed 1867 version or a later and very popular 'fantasy for orchestra' arranged by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, A Night on the Bare Mountain , based on the vocal score of the "Dream Vision...
and conducted it at the opening concert. He also wrote
ScheherazadeScheherazade , Op. 35, is a symphonic suite composed by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov in 1888...
,
Capriccio espagnolCapriccio Espagnol, Op. 34, is the common Western title for an orchestral work based on Spanish melodies and written by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov in 1887. Originally intended for a solo violin against an orchestra, Rimsky-Korsakov later decided that a purely orchestral work would do better justice...
and the
Russian Easter Overture specifically for them.