RIMSKY-KORSAKOV, Nikolai Andreyevich (1844-1908)

RIMSKY-KORSAKOV, Nikolai Andreyevich (1844-1908)
Cabinet photograph inscribed on the verso with an autograph musical quotation signed (‘N. Rimsky-Korsakov’), from the Spanish Capriccio, Op. 34, 13 April 1890.
163 x 107mm overall, photograph by K. Shapiro of St Petersburg (135 x 94mm), the quotation comprising three bars on a single stave, inscribed to David Coëlho, titled and dated in French in autograph (the ink slightly uneven in places, the photograph slightly spotted). Provenance: Sotheby’s, 9 December 1999, lot 213.

A quotation from the Capriccio Espagnol, one of Rimsky-Korsakov’s best known orchestral compositions. The Kaprichchio na ispanskiye temï was composed in 1887, by which time Rimsky-Korsakov had been a professor at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory for many years: he had taken the position initially in the face of The Five’s fierce anti-conservatory approach as one that offered financial security and a platform from which to promote a new Russian style of music, an all-encompassing process of composing, compiling and editing. Following the resounding success of his opera The Snow Maiden, he occupied himself with instrumental music: the Spanish Capriccio is perhaps the most inspired result, a showcase for Rimsky-Korsakov’s brilliant orchestration. Together with Sheherezade and Svetlïy prazdnik (‘Russian Easter Festival’ overture) of 1888, he considered the Spanish Capriccio to contain the finest examples of orchestral virtuosity he had been able to produce before he came under the influence of Wagner. Proud as he was of the dazzling effects he had created for these pieces, Rimsky-Korsakov could hardly have imagined the international celebrity they would bring him once the European craze for Russian music was born in the 1900s.

Provenance
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