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"Without music, life would be a mistake." - Friedrich Nietzsche

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov was a Russian composer, and a member of the group of composers known as The Five. He was a master of orchestration. His best-known orchestral compositions— Capriccio Espagnol, the Russian Easter Festival Overture, and the symphonic suite Scheherazade — are staples of the classical music repertoire, along with suites and excerpts from some of his 15 operas. Scheherazade is an example of his frequent use of fairy tale and folk subjects.
Rimsky-Korsakov believed, as did fellow composer Mily Balakirev and critic Vladimir Stasov, in developing a nationalistic style of classical music. This style employed Russian folk song and lore along with exotic harmonic, melodic and rhythmic elements in a practice known as musical orientalism, and eschewed traditional Western compositional methods. However, Rimsky-Korsakov appreciated Western musical techniques after he became a professor of musical composition, harmony and orchestration at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory in 1871. He undertook a rigorous three-year program of self-education and became a master of Western methods, incorporating them alongside the influences of Mikhail Glinka and fellow members of The Five. His techniques of composition and orchestration were further enriched by his exposure to the works of Richard Wagner.

Featured on

Various composers
The Library, Vol. 3
The King's Singers
Various composers
Songs Without Words
Dan Dean
Various composers
Battle of Stalingrad
The Royal Norwegian Air Force Band
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
The Invisible City of Kitezh & Sheherazade
St Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra / Temirkanov
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Anton Rubinstein
Piano Quintets by Rubinstein & Rimsky-Korsakov
Felicja Blumental, The New Philharmonia Wind Ensemble
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Carl Maria von Weber
De Mooiste Sprookjesmuziek
London Philharmonic Festival Orchestra
Russian Violin Concertos
Mark Lubotsky