NIKOLAY Rimsky~Korsakov Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov DUOS Although Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov composed in most of the usual forms, it is for his operas and orchestral works that he is chiefly remembered. It is also in these & Vita Panomariovaite compositions that his best music is to be found. He did compose choral works, chamber and instrumental music and songs but this part of his output is neither widely known Scheherazade Op.35 about by the general music lover nor thought very highly of by the musicologist. (arr. Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov) Indeed, Gerald Abraham, a prolific biographer of the composer, when writing for the 1 I: Largo e maestoso 11.18 New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (Macmillan, 1980) claimed that Rimsky- 2 II: Lento 11.24 Korsakov’s solo piano compositions, although including some well-made fugues, are, 3 III: Andantino quasi allegretto 10.32 ‘like the handful of chamber works, negligible in value.’ In his book – Six Great Russian 4 IV: Allegro molto 13.14 Composers (Rockliff, 1946) – Donald Brook also suggested that several of the minor works Rimsky-Korsakov produced, in particular the piano pieces, were ‘absolutely 5 Op.5 11.52 (arr. Nadezhda Nikolayevna Rimskaya-Korsakova) devoid of the vivid spontaneity that characterizes so much of his music’. Apart from the aforementioned fugues, the piano works include two or three sets of variations Op.34 (one on a theme by the composer’s eldest son, Misha), various preludes, scherzos (arr. Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov) and the like, and, written in collaboration with Borodin, Cui, Liadov and others, a set 6 I: Alborada 1.17 of Paraphrases on that irritating little tune known in English as ‘chopsticks’ and in 7 II: Variazioni 4.19 Russian as Táti-táti. 8 III: Alborada 1.20 Rimsky-Korsakov had started taking piano lessons at the age of six but, 9 IV: Scena e canto gitano 5.24 before long, it became obvious that his main interest was not in original piano music 10 V: Fandango asturiana 3.40 but in transcriptions for piano of excerpts from famous operas. These he would play by himself or as duets with his teachers. One of his earliest attempts at composition Total Running Time 74.20 – in 1855 – took the form of what he called a ‘sort of overture for the piano’ which, Recorded at Teatro Säo Luiz, , – 30th September, 1st & 2nd October 2006 although never finished, apparently gave him great pleasure. In his autobiography, Produced by Philip Hobbs My Musical Life (Faber and Faber 1989), he described how it was the form of the piece engineered by Julia Thomas that pleased him most for it was to start adagio and then gradually speed up through Post-Production at Finesplice, UK andante, moderato, allegretto and allegro, finally arriving atpresto . Photographs of Artur Pizarro and Vita Panomariovaite by Sven Arnstein In addition to his love of music, the young Rimsky-Korsakov had a passion Photo of Rimsky-Korsakov c.1895 courtesy AKG Images Artur Pizarro’s Worldwide Management: www.tomcroxonmanagement.co.uk for all things nautical and, despite the fact that he had not yet so much as set eyes Steinway D prepared by Nigel Polmear on the sea, he was determined to follow in the footsteps of his brother and become 2 3 a sailor; the elder by twenty-two years, Voyin Rimsky-Korsakov was, by then, a naval had lived in Novgorod during the twelfth century and around whom many legends lieutenant. In July 1856, Nikolay enrolled for a period of six years as a cadet at the had grown up. It seems that the idea of transforming one of these legends into music Naval College in St Petersburg at which his brother was later to become the Director. came originally from Stassov who had suggested it to Balakirev who had then passed During this time he did not neglect his music but continued with his piano lessons, it to Mussorgsky who eventually handed it on to Rimsky-Korsakov. his most influential teacher being Théodore Canille. Under Canille’s tuition Rimsky- Work on this new piece was begun on 26 July 1867 while the composer was Korsakov learnt to appreciate the music of Bach, Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, staying with his brother in Vyborg. Before long, however, his naval duties required Mendelssohn and Chopin and improved his expertise as a piano duettist. It was also him to embark on a month’s cruise in the Gulf of Finland so it was not until October Canille who introduced him to Mily Alexeyevich Balakirev. that Sadko was completed. As Rimsky-Korsakov explained in a letter to Mussorgsky: Rimsky-Korsakov was immediately impressed by Balakirev both as a ‘Sadko was finished on 12 October and has already been sent to the binder’s. I’ll tell person and as a musician. For his part, Balakirev saw in the young naval cadet a you that I am entirely pleased with it, this is decidedly the best thing I’ve done. To promising composer and straightaway, as was his wont, started to take charge of you Modest, profound thanks are due for the idea you suggested to me at Cui’s, on his new protégé’s musical life. Having shown Balakirev a symphony he had been the eve of [Cui’s wife] Malvina’s departure for Minsk. Thanks once again. Now I shall working on, Rimsky-Korsakov was instructed to continue with it. This he did under pause, for my noddle has been played out a bit from the strenuous exertion. ’s supervision until November 1862 when he was sent as a midshipman [Balakirev] is decidedly pleased with Sadko and did not want to make any remarks.’ on the clipper Almuz for a voyage which, over the next two or three years, was to (Rimsky-Korsakov was to return to the story of Sadko in the 1890s when he created take him half way across the world. Despite this separation from his new musical an opera on the subject.) friends - he had also by then met fellow composers and César Rimsky-Korsakov has also left a detailed description both of the programme Cui and the influential critic, Vladimir Vasiliyevich Stassov - Rimsky-Korsakov was he had in mind when dealing with Sadko in orchestral terms and of the various still encouraged to keep working on his symphony. Indeed, Balakirev wrote to him compositions that had inspired him while composing it. ‘The introduction - picture of insisting he should make progress with its slow movement. By then the Almuz had the calmly surging sea – contains the harmonic and modulatory basis of the beginning arrived in and, in his autobiography, Rimsky-Korsakov tells how, without a of Liszt’s ‘Ce qu’on entend sur la montagne’, he explained. ‘The beginning of the Allegro, piano on board, he had to play through what he had written on he found in depicting Sadko’s fall into the sea and his being dragged to the depths by the Sea King, the public houses of Gravesend. is, in method, reminiscent of the moment when Ludmilla is spirited away by Chernomor Back in St Petersburg in September 1865 he rejoined the Balakirev circle, in Act I of [Glinka’s opera] Ruslan and Ludmilla... The D major movement depicting the completed his symphony and was present when Balakirev himself conducted its feast in the Sea King’s realm, harmonically and to a certain degree melodically as well, highly successful first performance on 31 December. It was at about that time that recalls partly Balakirev’s Song of the Goldfish, which was then a favourite of mine, and Rimsky-Korsakov was introduced to the chemist and composer, , the introduction to Rusalka’s recitative in Act IV of Dargomyzhsky’s opera Rusalka. who along with Balakirev, Cui, Mussorgsky and Rimsky-Korsakov was to form the The dance theme of the third movement, as well as the cantabile theme following group referred to by Stassov as ‘the Mighty Handful’. Some eighteen months after that it, is entirely original. The variations on these two themes passing into a gradually first performance of his symphony, Rimsky-Korsakov started work on what he called a swelling storm were composed partly under the influence of certain passages in ‘musical picture’. The subject for this new composition was Sadko, a rich merchant who Liszt’s Mephisto Waltz, partly as representing certain echoes of Balakirev’s Tamara...

4 5 The closing movement of Sadko, as well as its introductory movement, ends with a n 1873 Rimsky-Korsakov was given the opportunity to combine his two careers beautiful chord passage of independent origin.’ Iwhen he was appointed Inspector of Naval Bands. He took this position very seriously The first performance ofSadko took place, under the baton of Balakirev, on 9 and, knowing that he still had a lot to learn, took with him on holiday that year several December 1867 and, according to the composer, went off well with the orchestration musical instruments - including a , a and a – so that he could, if satisfying everybody present. Such was the audience’s appreciation the composer was not actually learn to play them, learn how they were played. Over the years he gained called back to the stage several times. When the piece was performed again two years further expertise in orchestration by orchestrating works by those of his friends and later in a slightly revised form, Borodin referred to it as ‘a delight’ and the critic, contempories who had died prematurely; works such as Dargomyzhsky’s The Stone Alexander Nikolayevich Serov, who was generally antagonistic towards contemporary Guest, Mussorgsky’s Khovanshchina and Boris Godunov and Borodin’s Prince Igor. Russian music, noted that ‘in the midst of his ill-fated entourage’, its composer ‘blazes It was in 1887, while he was working on Borodin’s unfinished opera, that like a diamond among cobblestones’. Rimsky-Korsakov broke off to compose a new piece of his own. This is how he describes When published in 1870, Sadko appeared in two forms; as an orchestral the circumstances in his memoirs: ‘Throughout the summer I worked assiduously on score and in an arrangement for piano duet by Nadezhda Nikolayevna Purgold. the orchestration of Prince Igor and managed to accomplish a great deal. In the middle Rimsky-Korsakov had first met the Purgold family in the spring of 1868 at the home of the summer this work was interrupted: I composed the Capriccio Espagnol from of Alexander Sergeievich Dargomyzhsky who at that time was working on his opera, the sketches of my projected virtuoso violin fantasy on Spanish themes. According to The Stone Guest. Nadezhda Nikolayevna was a highly intelligent musician and an my plans the Capriccio was to glitter with dazzling colour and, manifestly, I excellent . Indeed, she had received a far better musical training than Rimsky- had not been wrong. The work of orchestrating Prince Igor also came easily, without Korsakov. A composer in her own right – one of her works being another ‘musical strain, and was evidently a success’. picture’ entitled The Enchanted Spot – she was particularly adept at making piano So successful was the Capriccio Espagnol that, during the rehearsal for its reductions of contemporary orchestral works. These included, in addition to Rimsky- first performance later in 1887, the members of the orchestra kept bursting into Korsakov’s Sadko and (variously referred to by him as his Second Symphony applause. Delighted with their response, the composer immediately asked them if he and a symphonic suite), piano duet arrangements of Tchaikovsky’s Fantasy-Overture, could dedicate the piece to the orchestra; not surprisingly, they too were delighted. At Romeo and Juliet, and his Second Symphony. She would also accompany at the piano the concert, the audience also demanded an encore and, although the critics, according rehearsals of operas and on such occasions was addressed by Mussorgsky as ‘Dear again to Rimsky-Korsakov, agreed that the Capriccio was ‘a magnificently orchestrated Orchestra’. piece’, the composer demurred. ‘It is a brilliant composition for orchestra’ he insisted, Not long after their first meeting Rimsky-Korsakov wrote a song which he maintaining that ‘the change of timbres, the felicitous choice of melodic designs and dedicated to Nadezhda Nikolayevna and in 1871 – the year in which, despite his lack figuration patterns, exactly suiting each instrument, the brief virtuoso for of musical qualifications, he was appointed Professor of Practical Composition at the solo instruments, the rhythm of the percussion instruments and so on, here constitute St Petersburg Conservatory – the couple became engaged. Their marriage took place the very essence of the composition, and not its clothing, i.e. orchestration’. Despite the following year on 12 July with Mussorgsky as best man. Nadezhda Nikolayevna the importance to him of these orchestral colours, Rimsky-Korsakov (not his wife was soon to become a very important influence in her husband’s life, both personally this time) made a piano duet reduction of this work and had it published in 1888 and musically. alongside the orchestral version.

6 7 t was also Rimsky-Korsakov who created the piano duet version of his other great Having put all these thoughts in his readers’ minds, Rimsky-Korsakov then Iorchestral masterpiece, Scheherazade. This task took him, apparently, a fortnight went on to warn them not to assume that any repeated musical motif is intended to during the spring of 1889. (It is interesting to note that the performers on this refer to the same character, idea or situation each time it appears. On the contrary, recording agree that, in the arrangement by Rimsky-Korsakov’s wife of Sadko, the these musical ideas were used purely, he asserted, for symphonic development. In parts are more intelligently distributed between the players than they are in the two conclusion he claimed that all he had desired was ‘that the hearer, if he [or she] liked works arranged by the composer himself. It has already been noted that Nadezhda my piece as symphonic music, should carry away the impression that it is beyond Nikolayevna was a fine pianist but, according to Balakirev at least, it seems that her doubt an Oriental narrative of some numerous and varied fairy-tale wonders and not husband was not.) merely four pieces played one after the other and composed on the basis of themes Following the description in his autobiography of the events surrounding common to all the four movements’. the composition and first performance of his Capriccio Espagnol, Rimsky-Korsakov In his introduction to My Musical Life, Rimsky-Korsakov’s son, Andrey, noted went on to explain the origins of his symphonic suite, Scheherazade. ‘In the middle that the three ‘influences or inspirations’ which pursued his father throughout his of the winter [1887], engrossed as I was in my work on Prince Igor and other things, career were ‘folksong, the Orient, and the sea’ and suggested that he never got very I conceived the idea of writing an orchestral composition on the subject of certain far from any of them. ‘He turned everything in his life to artistic account: his early episodes from Scheherazade, as well as an overture on the themes of the obikhod.’ life at sea (reflected in Sadko and Scheherazade), his trips to the Crimea, his summer (The second of these was to become the Easter Festival Overture, the obikhod being vacations, when he noted down folk and bird-songs’ and ‘he was always seduced by a collection of canticles used in the Russian Orthodox Church.) Both of these works the picturesque and the exotic.’ These exotic and picturesque elements might not were completed in the summer of 1888. For Scheherazade, Rimsky-Korsakov has have played a great part in his original piano music but they certainly do in these again left a detailed description of the programme he had in mind for it. transcriptions of three of his most colourful orchestral scores. ‘The programme I had been guided by in composing Scheherazade’, he © Peter Avis, July 2007 explained, ‘consisted of separate, unconnected episodes and pictures from The Arabian Nights, scattered through all four episodes of my suite: the sea and Sinbad’s ship, the fantastic narrative of the Prince Kalender, the Prince and the Princess, the Artur Pizarro Bagdad Festival, and the ship dashing against the rock with the bronze rider upon Artur Pizarro was born in Lisbon, Portugal in 1968, and first played the piano on it. The unifying thread consisted of the brief introductions to the first, second and Portuguese television at the age of 4 having been introduced to the instrument by his fourth movements and the intermezzo in movement three, written for violin solo and maternal grandmother, pianist Berta da Nóbrega, and her piano-duo partner Campos delineating Scheherazade herself as telling her wondrous tales to the stern Sultan.’ Coelho who was a student of Vianna da Motta, Ricardo Viñes and Isidor Philipp. From The stern Sultan in question, Shakriar, was the one who, believing that no woman 1974 to 1990 Artur Pizarro studied with Sequeira Costa who had also been a student could be trusted to remain faithful to her husband, had all his wives put to death of Vianna da Motta, Mark Hamburg, , Marguerite Long and Jacques immediately after spending their first night with him until, that is, he encountered Février. This distinguished lineage immersed Artur in the tradition of the Golden Age Scheherazade who told him tantalizing stories for one thousand and one nights, of pianism and gave him a broad education in both the German and French piano thereby forestalling her execution. schools and repertoire. 8 9 After initial studies in Lisbon, Artur moved to Lawrence, , USA and continued working with Sequeira Costa at the University of Kansas. Artur began performing publicly again at the age of 13 with a recital début at the São Luíz Theatre in Lisbon and gave his concerto debut with the Gulbenkian Orchestra later in the same Discover the world of Linn Records year. While still under the tutelage of Costa, Artur Pizarro won first prizes in the 1987 Download at www.linnrecords.com Vianna da Motta Competition, the 1988 Greater Palm Beach Symphony Competition Now you can explore Linn music on-line with even greater ease by using our innovative download and the 1990 Harveys Leeds International Pianoforte Competition which saw the facility. Linn albums and tracks are available to download at studio master and CD quality – the quality beginning of an international concert career. you desire to achieve the best possible sound. MP3 downloads are also available. Artur Pizarro performs internationally in recital, chamber music and with linnrecords.com is a multi-format music delivery system that delivers music on vinyl, CD and download. the world’s leading and conductors. In addition he is an active chamber Register online today at www.linnrecords.com to keep up to date about our latest releases and to find musician and has performed at chamber music festivals throughout the world. In 2005 out more about our artists.

he formed the ‘Pizarro Trio’ with violinist Raphaël Oleg and cellist Josephine Knight. Linn RECORDS, GLASGOW Road, Waterfoot, Glasgow G76 0EQ UK t: +44 (0)141 303 5027/9 f: +44 (0)141 303 5007 e: [email protected] Vita Panomariovaite Vita Panomariovaite was born in Lithuania and began her studies with Prof. Serksnyte at the J. Naujalis School of Arts in Kaunas. Aged 14 Vita toured Lithuania with the Linn is an independent precision engineering company specialising in top quality audio Kaunas Chamber Orchestra and in 1998 she graduated from the Lithuanian Academy and video reproduction. Founded by Ivor Tiefenbrun, MBE in Glasgow, Scotland in 1972, of Music. During her studies she won several prizes at international piano competitions, the company grew out of Ivor’s love of music and the belief that he could vastly improve the sound quality of his own hi-fi system. Now sold in over 45 countries, Linn remains unremittingly including “Città di Senigallia” in Italy and “M.K.Ciurlionis” Competition in Lithuania. committed to manufacturing products for applications where sound quality matters. In 1998 Vita was awarded a full scholarship to study at the Guildhall School Linn strives to thrill customers who want the most out of life with demonstrably higher fidelity of Music and Drama with Artur Pizarro and in the same year won first prize in the complete audio and video entertainment solutions. Our standards also ensure that even the most Città di Sulmona competition in Italy and the Ville de Brest competition in France. affordable Linn system can communicate the sheer thrill and emotion of the performance. Throughout her three years at GSMD, Vita performed solo and chamber music recitals Linn has earned a unique reputation in the world of specialist hi-fi and multi-channel sound throughout the United Kingdom, Portugal, Italy and Lithuania. Since graduating with recording and reproduction. The company can now satisfy the demanding requirement of any a Master of Music Degree and a Concert Recital Diploma from GSMD in 2001, Vita has discriminating customer who cares about sound quality, longevity and reliability. continued her recital appearances and performed with the Orquestra da Fundaçäo do Conservatório Regional de Gaia in Portugal with Torsten Ostergren and with the Visit www.linn.co.uk for more information and to find your nearest Linn dealer. Orquesta de la Radio-Televisión de España with Adrian Leaper in a concert broadcast by Radio Nacional de España. In 2004 Vita was third prize winner in the Joaquin Linn PRODUCTS LTD, GLASGOW Road, Waterfoot, Glasgow G76 0EQ UK Rodrigo International Piano Competition in Madrid where she also won the special t: +44 (0)141 307 7777 f: +44 (0)141 644 4262 e: [email protected] Joaquin Rodrigo prize for the best interpretation of the composer’s works.

10 11 Also available by Artur Pizarro on Linn Records

CKD 244 Beethoven piano sonatas CKD 225 Beethoven last three piano sonatas CKD 248 Chopin reminiscences CKD 250 Chopin sonatas CKD 290 Ravel complete works