The Mentor: Russian Music, Vol. 4, Num. 18, Serial No. 118, November 1, 1916

RUSSIAN MUSIC
Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky

FOUR

Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky in the first part of his life held an office in the Ministry of Justice at Petrograd. While he was an excellent amateur performer, he did not think seriously enough of his musical ability to consider music as a career. It was Anton Rubinstein who induced him to take up music as a profession.

Tchaikovsky was born at Votkinsk, Russia, on May 7, 1840. He was the son of a mining engineer, who shortly after Peter was born removed to Petrograd. The boy picked up a smattering of musical knowledge as a law student. Then when he was twenty-two, Rubinstein, the director of the conservatory at Petrograd, persuaded him to enter it as a pupil. Tchaikovsky, therefore, resigned his position in the Ministry of Justice and took up the study of composition, harmony, and counterpoint. Four years later, on leaving the conservatory, he won the prize, a silver medal, for his cantata on Schiller’s “Ode to Joy.”

In 1866 Tchaikovsky became professor of the history and theory of music at the Moscow Conservatory, which had just then been founded by Nicholas Rubinstein, a brother of Anton. For the next twelve years he was practically first chief of this conservatory, since Serov, whom he succeeded, never took up his appointment. While serving in that capacity he wrote text books and made translations of others into Russian.

At Moscow Tchaikovsky met Ostrovsky, who wrote for him his first operatic libretto, “The Voyevoda.” The Russian Musical Society rejected a concert overture by Tchaikovsky, written at the suggestion of Rubinstein. In 1867 Tchaikovsky made an unsuccessful début as a conductor. His star was not yet in the ascendant, for in 1869 his opera, “The Voyevoda,” lived for only ten performances. Tchaikovsky later destroyed the score of this work. The following year his operatic production, “Undine,” was rejected. In 1873, at Moscow, his incidental music to the “Snow Queen” proved a failure. During all this time the composer was busy on a cantata, an opera and a text book of harmony, the last of which was adopted by the authorities of the Moscow Conservatory. He was also music critic for two journals.

Tchaikovsky competed for the best musical setting for Polovsky’s “Wakula the Smith” in a competition, and won the first two prizes. On the production of this in Petrograd, in November, 1876, however, only a small measure of success was gained. A greater success came to the composer with the production of the “Oprischnik.” From 1878 on he devoted himself exclusively to composition.

On July 6, 1877, Tchaikovsky married. It was a most unfortunate match and rapidly developed into a catastrophe. Tchaikovsky had too much temperament – result, many stormy scenes. A separation occurred in October. Tchaikovsky became morose, and finally left Moscow to make his home in Petrograd. He fell ill there and attempted to commit suicide by standing up to his chin in the river during a cold period. He had hoped to die from exposure, but his brother’s tender care saved his life.

Tchaikovsky had begun work on the opera, “Eugen Onegin,” in 1877. This work was produced at the Moscow Conservatory in March, 1879, and it was then that real success first came to him.

In the meanwhile, however, Tchaikovsky went to Clarens to recuperate from his illness. He remained abroad for several months, visiting Italy and Switzerland, and moving restlessly from one place to another.

In 1878 he accepted the post of director of the Russian Musical Department at the Paris Exhibition. He resigned this later on. In 1879 he wrote his “Maid of Orleans,” which was produced in 1880. During the next five years he continued his travels, working all the time at composition. For some time he lived in retirement at Klin, where his generosity to the poor made him much loved. In 1888 and 1889 he appeared at the London Philharmonic concerts. He also visited America, conducting his own compositions in New York City at the opening of Carnegie Hall in 1891. In 1893 Cambridge University made him a doctor of music. In the same year he died from an attack of cholera at Petrograd, on November 6.

RUSSIAN MUSIC
Nicholas Andreievich Rimsky-Korsakov

FIVE

Rimsky-Korsakov was one of the many Russian composers who took up a musical career after a future had been planned along the line of some other work. In his case the Navy lost where music gained. Nicholas Andreievich Rimsky-Korsakov was born March 18, 1844, at Tikhvin, Russia. He had the good fortune to spend his early life in the country, and at the same time to hear from infancy the best music. On the estate of his father were four Jews, who formed a little band. This band supplied music at all social functions that took place at the Korsakov home. He began to study the piano when he was six years old, and three years later he was improvising.

The boy’s parents, although they were glad to have him study music, planned a naval career for him. When he was twelve years old, in 1856, he was sent to the Petrograd Naval College. While studying there, however, he continued his music. In 1861 he began to take his musical studies very seriously. The following year, however, he had to conclude his naval education with a three years’ cruise in foreign waters. When this cruise was over, in 1865, a symphony that he had composed had its first performance. This symphony bears the distinction of being the first musical work in that form by a Russian composer.

In 1866 began Korsakov’s friendship with Moussorgsky, which lasted until the latter’s death in 1881. From then on, for the next few years, he worked hard at musical composition. It was during this time that he first began to turn his attention to opera, of which “Pskovitianka,” begun in 1870, was the first. In 1871 Rimsky-Korsakov was appointed a professor in the Conservatory at Petrograd. Two years later he decided to sever his connection with the Navy altogether. This year also saw the beginning of his collection of folk songs, which were published in 1877. The year before this, Korsakov had married. His wife was Nadejda Pourgold, the talented Russian pianist.

In 1874 the composer was made director of the Free School of Music at Petrograd, which position he filled until 1881. His second opera, “A Night in May,” was finished in 1878. He began another opera, “The Snow Maiden,” two years later. His operas, however, always attracted less attention abroad than his symphonies.

In 1883 he was appointed assistant director of the Imperial Chapel at Petrograd. This post was held by him for eleven years. Two years later he was offered the directorship of the Conservatory in Moscow, but he declined it. In 1886 he became director of the Russian symphony concerts. Three years later he appeared in Paris and conducted two concerts. He was enthusiastically received, and entertained at a banquet.

In 1894 Rimsky-Korsakov gave up the assistant directorship of the Imperial Chapel. He was now at work upon an opera in which the element of humor predominated. This was “Christmas Eve Revels.” It was produced at the Maryinsky Theater in Petrograd in 1895. Korsakov continued to work at opera, producing, among others, “Sadko,” “The Czar’s Betrothed,” “The Tale of Czar Saltan,” “Servilia,” “Kostchei the Deathless,” “Pan Voyvoda,” and “Kitej.” His last opera, “The Golden Cock,” was censored during the interval between its composition and the composer’s death. It was not until May, 1910, that it was produced at Moscow. It is supposed that chagrin at the fate of this opera contributed to the suddenness of Rimsky-Korsakov’s death, which occurred on June 20, 1908.

“In him we see,” says one writer, “the Russian who, though not by any means satisfied with Russia as he finds it, does not set himself to hurl a series of passionate but ineffective indictments against things as they are, but who raises an ideal and does his utmost to show how best that ideal may be attained.”