Alexandre Borodine
Though far from prolific as a composer -- by day he was a scientist noted for his research on aldehydes -- Alexander Borodin nevertheless earned a secure place in the history of Russian music. As a creative spirit, he was the most accomplished of the Russian nationalist composers. He had a particular gift for the distinctive stripe of exoticism so evident in his most frequently performed work, the "Polovtsian Dances" from the opera Prince Igor.
The illegitimate son of a Georgian prince and a doctor's wife, Borodin enjoyed a comfortable upbringing. As a child he learned to play several instruments and tried his hand at composing, but other aptitudes directed his formal education. He studied chemistry at St. Petersburg's Medico-Surgical Academy, obtaining his doctorate in 1858 and pursuing further studies in Europe until 1862. Upon his return to Russia, he became a professor at his alma mater, but even as an academic career apparently loomed before him, he maintained a devotion to music.
Under the influence of Mily Balakirev, whom he met in 1862, Borodin became interested in applying elements of Russian folk music to works for the concert hall and stage. He joined a circle of like-minded composers -- Balakirev, Rimsky-Korsakov, Mussorgsky, and Cui -- famously dubbed "The Five" or "The Mighty Handful." The influence of Balakirev in particular is at once in evident in the Symphony No. 1 in E flat major (1867). Borodin began the much craggier Symphony No. 2 in B minor in 1869, the same year he commenced labor on his most important work, the opulent four-act opera Prince Igor. While it took him more than five years to complete the symphony, work on Prince Igor dragged on for decades. Borodin, who had in the meantime completed a number of other works, left the opera unfinished at the time of his death. It was completed posthumously by Rimsky-Korsakov, a skillful craftsman and a particularly apt match for Borodin's colorful musical character, and Alexander Glazunov. Glazunov also completed the Symphony No. 3 in A minor, which the composer had been working on until the time of his death.
Aside from teaching chemistry and conducting research, Borodin helped found a series of medical courses for women in 1872. Such activities, as well as the poor health that plagued him in the 1880s, drained the energy that he might have devoted to composition. Still, as a part-time composer, he left a significant oeuvre: more than a dozen worthy songs, miscellaneous piano pieces, two string quartets (the second of which contains a ravishing Nocturne often performed in an arrangement for string orchestra), and the popular tone poem In the Steppes of Central Asia (1880). Borodin died while attending a ball in St. Petersburg on February 27, 1887.
© James Reel /TiVo
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Touch The (Remixes Part 1)
Divers - Paru chez Doma Musique le 28 juil. 2014
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Borodin: Polovtsian Dances
Wilhelm Rohr, The Nord Deutsches Symphony Orchestra
Classique - Paru chez Sunday Club Records le 20 janv. 2014
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Joyas de la Música, Vol. 18
Classique - Paru chez Star Evens Digital le 21 mars 1996
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Borodin: Quartet No. 2 in D Major
Classique - Paru chez Sunday Club Records le 17 sept. 2013
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Borodin: Polovtsian Dances
Thomas Beecham, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Beecham Choral Society
Opéra - Paru chez Sunday Club Records le 17 janv. 2014
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Borodin: Polovtsian Dance from "Prince Igor"
Lovro von Mataic, The Philharmonia Orchestra
Classique - Paru chez Sunday Club Records le 8 avr. 2013
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Borodin - Prince Igor: Polovetzian Dances
Orchestre de la Société des Concerts Symphonique de Paris, René Leibowitz
Classique - Paru chez Violet Hill Records le 13 juin 2012
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Borodin - Prince Igor: Overture
René Leibowitz, Orchestre de la Société des Concerts Symphonique de Paris
Classique - Paru chez Violet Hill Records le 8 juin 2012
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Borodin - 'Prince Igor' Overture
Orchestre de la Société des Concerts du Conservatoire, René Leibowitz
Classique - Paru chez Violet Hill Records le 5 juin 2012
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