Consolidating

Donald Macleod focuses on the career of Russian composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and how his music drew upon and depicted centuries of Russian legends and folklore.

This week, Donald Macleod traverses the dramatic and vivid musical landscapes of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov: a vital, fascinating, and perhaps under-appreciated figure in the evolution of the canon of western art music. His life alone was extraordinary: beginning as a cadet in the Tsar’s navy, it ended soon after the tumult of the 1905 revolution; the prospect of far greater upheaval, national and international, looming. The series celebrates many of Rimsky-Korsakov’s most popular favourites, including the Flight of the Bumblebee, the Russian Festival Overture and Capriccio Espagnol, and Scheherazade, which is heard in instalments across the week: there also are opportunities to hear some of the symphonic works and chamber music; and a focus on the operas, which perhaps deserve to be heard more often than they generally are.

Today, Donald Macleod considers the influence of Russian mythology and folk stories on Rimsky-Korsakov’s musical imagery.

The Golden Cloud Slept, Op 3, No 3
Bolshoi Theatre Children's Chorus
Andrey Zaboronok, director

Trombone Concerto in B flat major
Christian Lindberg, trombone
Kosei Wind Orchestra
Chikara Imamura, conductor

Symphony No 3, Op 32 (3rd & 4th mvts)
Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra
Neeme Järvi, conductor

The Tatar Captivity, Op 18, No 2
Yekaterinburg Philharmonic Choir
Andrei Petrenko, director

Scheherazade, Op 35 (2nd mvt, The Story of the Kalendar Prince)
Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra
Vassily Petrenko, conductor

The Octave, Op 45, No 3
Of What I Dream in the Quiet Night, Op 40, No 3
The Clouds Begin to Scatter, Op 42, No 3
Daniil Shtoda, tenor
Larissa Gergieva, piano

Produced by Lyndon Jones for BBC Audio Wales and West