The Classical Music Book

DIRECTORY 335

ALEKSANDR BORODIN

1833–1887

The illegitimate son of a Georgian

nobleman and an army doctor’s wife,

Aleksandr Borodin trained as a scientist.

In 1864, he became professor of

chemistry at the Imperial Medical and

Surgical Academy in St. Petersburg.

As an enthusiastic amateur musician,

he was also a member of a group of

young composers, called “The Five,”

determined to fashion a truly Russian

tradition of classical music. He wrote

two symphonies, two string quartets,

and a tone poem, In Central Asia (1880).

His greatest work, the opera Prince Igor,

based on a medieval Russian epic, was

unfinished when Borodin died of a heart

attack. It was completed by Nikolay

Rimsky-Korsakov, another of the Five,

with his pupil Aleksandr Glazunov.

MILY BALAKIREV

1836–1910

Demanding, often tyrannical, Mily

Alekseyevich Balakirev was the driving

force behind “The Five”—a group of

ardently nationalist young Russian

composers who came together in

St. Petersburg in the 1860s. He was

also a founding member of the Free

School of Music, which was set up as

a less academic alternative to the

St. Petersburg Conservatory. He suffered

a nervous breakdown in the 1870s and

withdrew from the musical world for five

years, working as a railway clerk. When

he returned, he had lost much of his

former spirit. His works include a piano

piece, Islamey (1869), and a symphonic

poem, Russia (1887), but his major

achievement was to have brought

together “The Five,” who collectively

transformed Russian classical music.

GEORGES BIZET

1838–1875

The French composer Georges Bizet

wrote a symphony when he was 17, and

his first opera was performed the next

year. He then spent three years studying

in Rome, but back in Paris, his early

successes did not continue, and his

opera Les pêcheurs de perles (The Pearl

Fishers; 1863) was disappointingly

received. A one-act piece, Djamileh

(1872), was more successful and led to

a commission to write an opera based

on a novel by Prosper Mérimée. The

result, Carmen, opened in March 1875,

drawing unenthusiastic reviews until

Bizet’s sudden death of an undiagnosed

heart condition in June, when the critics

abruptly reversed their verdicts. Carmen

became a landmark of French opera—

tautly dramatic with a strongly realist

focus on ordinary working people.

NIKOLAY RIMSKY-KORSAKOV

1844–1908

A naval officer who turned to music,

Rimsky-Korsakov had the most lasting

impact of the Russian composers

known as “The Five.” In 1871, he was

appointed professor of composition

and orchestration at the St. Petersburg

Conservatory. Unlike his fellows in

“The Five,” he had a high regard for

the academic disciplines of composition,

which he passed on to his pupils.

After the deaths of Mussorgsky and

Borodin, he edited and completed their

works. His own talent for colorful

orchestration is seen in pieces such

as Capriccio espagñol (1887) and

Scheherazade (1888), as well as his

operas, notably Sadko (1897) and The

Golden Cockerel (1909).

RUGGERO LEONCAVALLO

1857–1919

The Neapolitan opera composer Ruggero

Leoncavallo is remembered for one great

work, Pagliacci (“The players”), which

was first staged at La Scala in Milan

in 1892. The son of a police official,

Leoncavallo had written other operas

with no success. For Pagliacci, he turned

to a new Italian school of opera known

as verismo (literally, “truth-ism” or

“realism”), characterized by sensational

plots drawn from everyday life. His short,

two-act work—supposedly inspired by

a case his father was involved in—tells

piano teacher. She and Robert married

in 1840, defying her father’s opposition.

Despite having eight children, Schumann

maintained an active musical career of

performing and teaching. Her works, all

of which date from before her husband’s

early death in 1856, include collections

of Lieder, chamber music, an early

piano concerto, and what is generally

regarded as her finest work, the Piano

Trio in G minor, Op. 17 (1846).

CÉSAR FRANCK

1822–1890

In his teens, the Belgian-born César

Franck was already studying at the

Paris Conservatory and performing as a

concert pianist. In his late 20s, however,

following the poor reception of an

oratorio he had composed, he abandoned

his career as a composer and performer

and started to earn his living as an

organist and teacher. Only in his 50s

did Franck resume a more public profile,

after accepting the post of organ

professor at the Paris Conservatoire.

He became an influential composition

teacher and started writing again. His

works include a symphony, organ pieces,

and a series of chamber works, notably

the Piano Quintet in F minor (1879),

Violin Sonata in A major (1886), and

String Quartet in D major (1889).

ANTON BRUCKNER

1824–1896

The Austrian Anton Bruckner was a

bold, if unlikely, musical innovator, best

known for his nine symphonies and his

religious works. Bruckner worked

as a teacher until 1855, when he was

made chief organist at Linz Cathedral.

In Linz, following years of intensive

study of composition, he wrote his first

major works: three Mass settings and a

symphony. In 1868, he took up a teaching

post at the Conservatory in Vienna,

where he lived for the rest of his life.

An admirer of Wagner, he expanded the

scope of the late Romantic symphony

with complex harmonies, dissonances,

and the rich weaving together of the

different instrumental parts.

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