Portrait of Composer Nikolai Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov by Valentin Serov, 1898; Wikimedia Commons.
Rimsky-Korsakov and His World
29th Annual Bard Music FestivalAugust 10–12 and August 17–19, 2018
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844–1908) played a definitive role in what became known as the Russian style in music. The most assiduous and prolific of the Russian nationalist composers known as the Mighty Five—Mily Balakirev, Modest Musorgsky, Alexander Borodin, Cèsar Cui, and himself—he developed and refined many of the ideas born in the hothouse of their collective creativity, forging a highly recognizable Russian style and passing it on to his many students. The Festival looks at the shape of his career, from naval officer to composer of works of great originality.