Publisher's Synopsis
Rimsky-Korsakov was not only a world-famous composer whose career spanned almost 43 years: in addition, he was in the Russian Naval Service from 1856 to 1884, Director of Russian Naval Bands, Deputy Director of the Russian Chapel Royal, Professor at the St Petersburg Conservatoire for 37 years, and Conductor of the Free Music School.
Brian Reeve's biography gives an in-depth view of these areas of Rimsky-Korsakov's life, and includes many hundreds of quotations from correspondence to and from his family, friends, colleagues, and students; there are in addition 24 appendices containing full lists of his musical works, with comprehensive details of contents, composition and performance history, analyses, and reviews, of 40 of these, including all his operas; Mr Reeve also provides numerous reminiscences of the composer from others, accounts of Russian cultural and social life of the time, biographies, and bibliography. There are over 130 illustrations.
