Rimsky-Korsakov's bee takes flight

Synopsis

Russian composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov might be described as an operatic dynamo: he composed fifteen and had a hand in editing, orchestrating and promoting important operas by his fellow countrymen: Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov and Khovantschina, Borodin’s Prince Igor and Dargomïzhsky’s The Stone Guest.

Rimsky-Korsakov’s fifteen operas are rarely staged with any regularity outside Russia, although instrumental suites and excerpts from them have proven immensely popular as concert pieces.

The familiar Flight of the Bumble Bee is from a Rimsky-Korsakov opera that premiered in Moscow on today’s date in 1900, and, like most of his operas, is based on Russian fairytales. The opera’s full title is: The Tale of Tsar Saltan, of his Son the Renowned and Mighty Bogatïr Prince Guidon Saltanovich, and of the Beautiful Swan-Princess.

If you think the title is a bit long, consider the required cast of performers, which in addition to thirteen main characters calls for Boyars and their wives, courtiers, nursemaids, sentries, troops, boatmen, astrologers, footmen, singers, scribes, servants and maids, dancers of both sexes, 33 knights of the sea with their leader Chernomor, a squirrel and — oh yes — a bumblebee.

Music Played in Today's Program

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908): Flight of the Bumble Bee, from Tsar Saltan; Philharmonia Orchestra; Vladimir Ashkenazy, conductor; London 460 250

Rimsky-Korsakov: Flight of the Bumble Bee; Budapest Clarinet Quintet; Naxos 8.553427

Rimsky-Korsakov: Flight of the Bumble Bee Itzhak Perlman, violin; Samuel Sanders, piano; EMI 54882

On This Day

Births

• 1587 - Baptism of German composer and organist Samuel Scheidt, in Halle-on-Saale

• 1801 - Italian composer Vincenzo Bellini, in Catania, Sicily

• 1911 - Russian-American composer Vladimir Ussachevsky, in Hailar, Manchuria

Deaths

• 1939 - French composer and organist Charles Tournemire, 69, in Arcachon, France

• 1993 - Russian inventor Lev Sergeivitch Termen (anglicized to Leon Theremin), 97, in Moscow. He invented the theremin, an electronic instrument whose sound was either used or imitated (by specially constructed and easier to play electronic instruments) in any number of film scores (Spellbound, The Day the Earth Stood Still, etc.) and even in the Beach Boys’ song “Good Vibrations.”

Premieres

• 1726 - Bach: Sacred Cantata No. 49 (Ich Gehe und Suche mit Verlangen) performed on the 20th Sunday after Trinity as part of Bach’s third annual Sacred Cantata cycle in Leipzig (1725/27)

• 1844 - Verdi: opera I Due Foscari (The Two Foscari), in Rome at the Teatro Argentina

• 1888 - Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade, in St. Petersburg (see Julian date: Oct. 22)

• 1898 - Rimsky-Korsakov: opera The Tsar’s Bride, at the Solodovnikov Theatre in Moscow, with Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov conducting (see Julian date: Oct. 22)

• 1900 - Rimsky-Korsakov: opera The Tale of Tsar Saltan, at the Solodovnikov Theatre in Moscow, with Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov conducting (see Julian date: Oct. 21)

• 1927 - Hindemith: Kammermusik No. 5, in Berlin at the Kroll Opera, with Otto Klemperer conducting and the composer the viola soloist

• 1943 - Shostakovich: Symphony No. 8, at the Moscow Conservatory by the USSR State Symphony conducted by Yevgeny Mravinsky, for an invited audience of musicians, artists, critics, and journalists. The first public performance took place the following evening.

• 1945 - Shostakovich: Symphony No. 9, by the Leningrad Philharmonic, Yevgeny ravinsky conducting

• 1946 - Prokofiev: opera Betrothal in a Monastery (or The Duenna) in Leningrad

• 1950 - David Diamond: Symphony No. 3, by the Boston Symphony, Charles Munch conducting

• 1958 - Per Norgaard: Constellations for 12 solo strings, in Copenhagen

• 2002 - Milton Babbitt: From the Psalter, David Lang: how to pray, and Shulamit Ran: Supplications, at Carnegie Hall in New York by soloists, the New York Virtuoso Singers and the American Composers Orchestra, Steven Sloane conducting

Others

• 1783 - Mozart completes his Linz Symphony (No. 36) the day before its first performance in that Austrian town