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From the flight of a bumblebee to a visit to Spain, Donald Macleod begins this week’s voyage around the life and music of the colourful Russian composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov.

In November 1980, British punk rock group The Damned released their Black Album. On Side 3, around 9 minutes in, the work of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov makes an appearance – the unmistakable double-stopping of a violin stating Scheherazade’s theme. What might Rimsky-Korsakov have thought of this extraordinary appropriation? It’s not unreasonable to guess that he’d have been delighted: two reasons stand out. First, that his life’s work attests to a fascination with, and determination to create, vivid musical images; and second, his dedication to pedagogy, to the support and encouragement of subsequent generations of musicians. He was a composer who championed musical experiment and exploration.

This week, Donald Macleod traverses the dramatic and vivid musical landscapes of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov: a vital, fascinating, and perhaps under-appreciated figure in the evolution of the canon of western art music. His life alone was extraordinary: beginning as a cadet in the Tsar’s navy, it ended soon after the tumult of the 1905 revolution; the prospect of far greater upheaval, national and international, looming.

The series celebrates many of Rimsky-Korsakov’s most popular favourites, including the Flight of the Bumblebee, the Russian Festival Overture and Capriccio Espagnol, and Scheherazade, which is heard in instalments across the week: there also are opportunities to hear some of the symphonic works and chamber music; and a focus on the operas, which perhaps deserve to be heard more often than they generally are.

Today, Donald Macleod reflects on the milieu into which Rimsky-Korsakov was born, a childhood which witnessed the building of the St Petersburg to Moscow railway, the presence of many of Russia’s literary greats, and a surging desire to express national identity through culture.

Flight of the Bumblebee
Isaac Stern, violin
Columbia Symphony Orchestra
Milton Katims, conductor

The Tsar of Sultan Suite, Op 57 (3rd mvt, The Three Wonders)
Seattle Symphony Orchestra
Gerald Schwartz, conductor

Symphony No 1, Op 1
Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra
Neeme Järvi, conductor

Capriccio Espagnol, Op 34 (excerpts)
London Philharmonic Orchestra
Alexander Lazarev, conductor

Produced by Lyndon Jones for ´óÏó´«Ã½ Audio Wales and West