Donald Macleod surveys the life and music of Russian composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov

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.

Music Featured:

Flight of the Bumblebee
The Tsar of Sultan Suite, Op 57 (3rd mvt, The Three Wonders)
Symphony No 1, Op 1
Capriccio Espangnol, Op 34 (excerpts)
The Maid of Pskov: Overture
Mussorgsky arr. Rimsky-Korsakov: Night on the Bare Mountain
Legend of Sadko, Op 5
Quintet
Scheherazade, Op 35 (excerpt)
The Golden Cloud Slept, Op 3, No 3
Trombone Concerto in B flat major
Symphony No 3, Op 32 (3rd & 4th mvts)
The Tatar Captivity, Op 18, No 2
The Octave, Op 45, No 3
Mussorgsky arr. Rimsky-Korsakov: Gopak from Sorochintsi Fair
Russian Easter Festival Overture, Op 36
String Quartet in F major, Op 12 (3rd mvt)
Mlada Suite
The Snow Maiden: Prologue; Dance of the birds
Against the Cruel Crag from Sadko
The Invisible City of Kitzeh Suite (A Hymn to Nature)
The Golden Cockerel Suite
Four Songs, Op 2 (No 2, The Nightingale and the Rose)

Presented by Donald Macleod
Produced by Lyndon Jones for BBC Audio Wales and West

For full track listings, including artist and recording details, and to listen to the pieces featured in full (for 30 days after broadcast) head to the series page for Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908) https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001z5dz

And you can delve into the A-Z of all the composers we’ve featured on Composer of the Week here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/3cjHdZlXwL7W41XGB77X3S0/composers-a-to-z