I have heard much from Mr. Glazunov about his sojourn in London and about the Philharmonic Society’s concerts, which have left upon him so favorable an impression. I much regret to be unable to afford myself so great a pleasure…”
Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov
A member of a group of St. Petersburg composers known as The Five, Rimsky-Korsakov was a prolific composer of operas, symphonies, marches, concerti, songs, chamber music, and folksong collections. In 1871, he joined the faculty of the St. Petersburg Conservatory, renamed in his honor in 1944. His best known-work, Scheherazade, an orchestral work inspired by The Book of One Thousand and One Nights (better known as The Arabian Nights), was composed in 1888. It became extremely popular and, in 1910, the Ballet Russes staged Scheherazade with choreography by Michel Fokine and a libretto by Fokine and Léon Bakst.
A child prodigy, Alexander Glazunov’s (1865-1936) talents came to Rimsky-Korsakov’s attention through Mily Balakirev, a fellow member of The Five. Rimsky premiered the 16-year-old’s first symphony in 1882, taking him as a pupil and forming a close mentorship and friendship with him. Glazunov became a conductor and one of Russia’s leading composers and a professor at the St. Petersburg Conservatory, becoming director in 1905. “Within Russian music, Glazunov has a significant place because he succeeded in reconciling Russianism and Europeanism… he remains a composer of imposing stature and a stabilizing influence in a time of transition and turmoil,” (The New Grove Dictionary).
At the time of our letter, London’s Philharmonic Society was under the direction of Henry J. Wood, “a special student of and sympathizer with the Russian school of music,” who had included Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony and Rimsky-Korsakov’s Capriccio Espagnole in his January 1904 program, (“Philharmonic Society Conducted by Henry J. Wood,” The New York Times, January 9, 1904).
Folded into quarters with file holes in both the upper and left margins. One unprofessionally repaired tear on the verso affects several letters; otherwise very good. Uncommon, especially in English.
