The Russian Five

The Russian Five

The group of composers from this time(being contemporaries of Tchaikovsky)were working with the desire to make Russian music known to the world and make the musician's life a little easier in the Communist state. They were composers all right, but they were Nationalists first! They were Mily Balakirev (1837-1910), Cesar Cui (1835-1918), Alexander Borodin (1833-1887), Modest Mussorgsky (1839-1881), and Nicholas Rimsy-Korsakoff (1844-1908). Beginning shortly after 1870 the group working independently began to add elements of vast space, exotica, strange lands and burning soul. Of them all the most memorable works were by Borodin, Prince Igor Opera, Steppes of Central Asia. And by Mussorgsky his Night on Bald Mountain (1867). Rimsky produced Scheherazade and the Russian Easter Overture. His Antar Symphony (1868) would be revised in 1897, the reason was known only to the Composer. [AW] {MI}