#balakirev

[lesser-known-composers]

Balakirev - Islamey. Valentina Lisitsa

[musicainextenso]

The term “Orientalism” refers to Western art focusing on Eastern subjects, most specifically it took cultural influence from the Middle East. We see this in the late 1700s with a Viennese interest in Turkish culture, and in the following century we see Orientalism pop up in French and Russian music. For Russia it is a bit ironic, considering that “The Five” were interested in Russian nationalism, and yet that “Russian” culture somehow included mild appropriation of Middle Eastern culture. Not sure why this happened, maybe the trend has something to do with a Romantic interest in the “exotic”, the unfamiliar. Or maybe easier access to other cultures through trade and colonialism piqued the fantasies of the average European? Either way, one example of Orientalism in Russian music can be heard in this symphonic poem by Mily Balakirev. In yesterday’s post, I had made a mistake: Mussorgsky didn’t bring “The Mighty Five” together, even though he was a member. Rather, it was Balakirev who had worked to bring the group together with the intention on focusing on Russian nationalism in music. The Caucuses, the region between the Black and Caspian seas, was under Russian rule in the 19th century, and Balakirev drew from a ballad by Mikhail Lermontov about an ancient legend of a princess from this region. Princess Tamara is a beautiful but evil women who lures men to her enchanted castle. A traveler finds the castle, comes into her bedroom, and after that night, she kills him and leaves his body to be taken away by the Terek river. As expected, the music is lush and passionate, very dramatic, with an emphasis on orchestral coloring and texture. And even with the tambourine and symbol clashes, the music is way more “Russian” than it is “Middle Eastern”. 

Today, on Musica in Extenso

Mily Balakirev

Tamara

Evgeny Svetlanov and the State Academic Symphony Orchestra

Visit our blog tomorrow for more music by Russian Composers, this week on Musica in Extenso 

- Nick O.

[clavierissimo]

M. Balakirev, autograph musical quotation of the opening of Islamey, 1895.

[senfonikankara]

Ayhan Sicimoğlu St.Petersburg’daki Tikvin Mezarlığı'nda Rus Beşlerinin ve Çaykovski’nin mezarlarını ziyaret ediyor. #Hastasıyız :)

[daily-classical]

M. BALAKIREV - Piano Concerto n. 2 in E Fat Major op. posth.

[lesser-known-composers]

Balakirev - Nocturnes no. 1, 2 and 3 Nocturne no. 1 in B flat minor 6:48 Nocturne no. 2 in B minor 16:45 Nocturne no. 3 in D minor Piano : Alexander Paley

[daily-classical]

Mily Balakirev - In Bohemia

[el-candelabro]

Tchaikovsky y Los Cinco: El Gran Debate sobre la Música Rusa del Siglo XIX

Tchaikovsky y Los Cinco: El Gran Debate sobre la Música Rusa del Siglo XIX