On March 18, 2024 we are marking the 180^th birth anniversary of the prominent Russian composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. He was destined to continue the family tradition and become a naval officer. But his passion for music changed his fate. Studying at the St Petersburg Naval Corps, Nikolai went to opera performances and concerts with great interest. It was there, in St Petersburg, that he met Mily Balakirev and became one of the members of the creative association "The Five". Having learnt much from his senior colleague and ideological inspirer Balakirev, Rimsky-Korsakov determined his own style and musical language. He wrote 15 operas on historical and fairy-tale plots, symphonic and chamber works, choral compositions and romances.

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov was not only an outstanding composer but also an excellent teacher, a professor at the St Petersburg Conservatoire, under whom Anatoly Lyadov and Alexander Glazunov studied. Rimsky-Korsakov edited the great Russian operas and made orchestrations of chamber works. He was a brilliant conductor and a prominent theorist who wrote the still studied "Fundamentals of Orchestration" and "Textbook of Harmony".

The musical selection comprised for the 180^th birth anniversary of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov features excerpts from operas written by the composer in different periods of his career. All the works written by Rimsky-Korsakov are united, first of all, by a harmonious worldview, inner poise, fine artistry, impeccable taste, a sense of artistic proportion, classical clarity of musical thinking, striving for beauty and perfection of performance. Hence, the composer's special attention to issues of professionalism and a peculiar aesthetics of craftsmanship, which brought the principles of Rimsky-Korsakov closer to the general trends in the development of Russian art of the late 19^th – early 20^th centuries.

https://operann.ru/n-a-rimskij-korsakov-k-180-letiyu-kompozitora#