Mainly known for his symphonic works, especially the popular symphonic suite Sheherazade, as well as the Capriccio Espagnol and the Russian Easter Festival Overture, Rimsky-Korsakov left an oeuvre that also included operas, chamber works, and songs. Rimsky-Korsakov's music is accessible and engaging owing to his talent for tone-coloring and brilliant orchestration. Furthermore, his operas are masterful musical evocations of myths and legends.

Born in 1844, Rimsky-Korsakov studied the piano as a child but chose a naval career, entering the College of Naval Cadets in St. Petersburg in 1856. However, he continued with piano lessons; in fact, in 1859, Rimsky-Korsakov started working with the French pianist Theodore Canille, through whom he met Balakirev, an important mentor and friend.

In 1862, after graduating form the naval school, Rimsky-Korsakov was at sea for two and a half years, devoting his free time to composition. Upon Rimsky-Korsakov's return to St. Petersburg, in 1865, Balakirev conducted his friend's First Symphony, which was hailed as the first important symphonic work by a Russian composer.

Rimsky-Korsakov was appointed professor of composition and orchestration at the St. Petersburg Conservatory in 1871. The following year, he married Nadezhda Purgold, a pianist. In 1873, Rimsky-Korsakov left active duty, becoming inspector of navy orchestras, a job which he held until 1884.

During the 1870s, Rimsky-Korsakov composed, conducted, and collected Russian folk songs. In 1878, he started composing the opera May Night, after a story by Nikolai Gogol, his first stage work based on a story containing fantastic motifs. Following the production of May Night, in 1880, Rimsky-Korsakov began work on Snow Maiden, based on Nikolai Ostrovsky's poetic retelling of a Slavic myth, which was performed in 1882.

Saddened by Mussorgsky's death, in 1881, Rimsky-Korsakov devoted himself to editing his friend's unpublished manuscripts. A master orchestrator, Rimsky-Korsakov felt obliged to help colleagues whose manuscripts needed revision. Thus, in 1887, when Borodin died, Rimsky-Korsakov agreed to orchestrate and complete Borodin's opera Prince Igor.

Rimsky-Korsakov wrote the Spanish Capriccio in 1887, completing the Russian Easter Overture and Sheherazade the following year. Having composed these resplendent works, however, Rimsky-Korsakov went through a period of despondency; there were deaths in his family, and, in 1893, Tchaikovsky died.

In 1895, Rimsky-Korsakov's Christmas Eve, another opera after a Gogol story, was produced. The composer's subsequent works recreated the rich world of Russian myths and legends. Sadko, completed in 1896, conjured up a medieval Russian legend. In 1901, Rimsky-Korsakov blended the legend of Kitezh and the story of St. Fevroniya to create a complex Christian-pantheistic narrative. Completed in 1905, the year when the politically progressive composer was temporarily dismissed from this teaching post, The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh and the Maiden, was produced in 1907.

Rimsky-Korsakov's last opera, The Golden Cockerel, completed in 1907, was inspired by a politically subversive story by Alexander Pushkin. The production of this work was a struggle, because the subject matter aroused suspicions among government censors. The opera was finally produced, in 1909, the year following the composer's death, by a private opera company in Moscow.

The artistic director and chief conductor at St. Petersburg's Mariinsky Theatre, Russian conductor Valery Gergiev is arguably the 21st century's foremost interpreter of Russian operatic repertory. He is also noted as a symphonic conductor and has served as chief conductor of Germany's Munich Philharmonic Orchestra since 2015.

Gergiev was born May 2, 1953, in Moscow. He is of Ossetian background, and during Russia's 2008 war with Georgia over the disputed territory of South Ossetia, he spoke out in support of Russian government actions. He led a 2003 production of Wagner's Ring Cycle at the Mariinsky that included many Ossetian cultural elements in its conception. Gergiev showed musical talent from early childhood, and by his teens he had settled on a career as a conductor. He studied with the famed pedagogue Ilya Musin at the St. Petersburg (then Leningrad) Conservatory and won the Soviet Union's All-Union Conductors' Competition in 1975 while still a student. He followed that up with a win at the Herbert von Karajan Conductors' Competition in Berlin the following year. Those victories led to Gergiev's 1977 appointment as assistant conductor at the Kirov Opera under Yuri Temirkanov and impressed observers with performances of such difficult works as Prokofiev's War and Peace. Gergiev's orchestral conducting career began in the 1980s with his leadership of the Armenian State Orchestra. He assumed the chief conductorship of the Kirov Opera upon Temirkanov's retirement in 1988; after the fall of the Soviet Union, the Kirov Opera and Kirov Theatre reverted to their original Mariinsky names. In addition to conducting operatic productions and symphonic concerts, Gergiev has been general director of the entire Mariinsky theater complex, for which he has overseen extensive renovations.

Gergiev's fame rests above all on his leadership role at the Mariinsky. He has taken companies on tour to many countries, including France (at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris) and the U.S. (a production of Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov at the Metropolitan Opera in New York). He formed the in-house Mariinsky label in 2009 for the marketing of the company's recordings. In 2019, the company issued his recording of Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 6 in B minor, Op. 74 ("Pathétique"), which received a five-star rating from Allmusic.com. He has also recorded for Philips and for the LSO Live label of the London Symphony Orchestra, for which he served as chief conductor beginning in 2005. From 1995 to 2008, Gergiev was chief conductor of the Rotterdam Philharmonic, and in 2015 he took up the baton for the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra, making several symphonic recordings for that orchestra's in-house label as well.

Gergiev, a strong supporter of Russian president Vladimir Putin, has at times faced criticism for political stances. He characterized members of the Russian dissident rock band Pussy Riot as publicity seekers and backed Putin's increasing repression of LGBT rights in Russia. Members of gay activist groups in New York have interrupted his performances there. On assuming his position in Munich, however, Gergiev affirmed his support for the city's anti-discrimination ordinance. ~ James Manheim

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

Mily Balakirev learned his craft from local musicians. Conductor Karl Eisrich introduced Balakirev to the music of Chopin, Glinka, and Alexander Ulybyshev, a music loving landowner who maintained a vast library of musical scores. In 1855, Balakirev composed his Piano Fantasia on Themes from Glinka's a Life for the Tsar, and Ulybyshev took Balakirev to St. Petersburg to meet Glinka himself. Glinka appreciated Balakirev's talent, and offered advice and encouragement. Balakirev enjoyed a brilliant debut as a pianist in St. Petersburg, and in 1858 performed Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 5 in the presence of the Tsar. In April 1858, Balakirev fell ill with "brain fever"; although he recovered, he would suffer from lifelong headaches, nervousness, and depression. With the deaths of both Glinka and Ulybyshev, Balakirev decided to carry on their ideas of a style reflective of the Russian national spirit. Balakirev wrote incidental music to Shakespeare's play King Lear in 1859-1861, and its resulting popularity enhanced his reputation. In 1861, Balakirev established the Free School of Music with Gabriel Lomakin, with the support of Tsar Nicolas. At the Free School's concerts, Balakirev programmed his own music and that of his students -- Cui, Rimsky-Korsakov, Mussorgsky, and Borodin. This last-named group, along with Balakirev himself, were dubbed the "Mighty Handful" in the Russian press, and recognized as the standard bearers of a new form of Russian musical art.

When Lomakin resigned from the Free School in November 1867, Balakirev assumed its directorship. Along with his prestige came an increased lack of sensitivity and overbearing personality traits; by the late 1860s, Mussorgsky and Rimsky-Korsakov were exchanging letters complaining about Balakirev's "interference." Likewise, St. Petersburg audiences were protesting the lack of light, familiar fare on the Free School concert programs. Balakirev stepped down from the directorship of the Free School in April 1869, but bounced back with his most famous work, the brilliant piano fantasy Islamey, premiered by Nicholas Rubinstein in December. Rubinstein played the work at concerts in Paris and elsewhere, and it achieved great popularity in the West. In addition, Balakirev met and encouraged Tchaikovsky, who composed his Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture under the older composer's watchful eye. The Free School's concert season of 1871-1872 was a disaster; as a result, Balakirev lapsed into a depression lasting five years, and Rimsky-Korsakov overtook the direction of the institution. Friends helped revive Balakirev's spirits, and he returned as an instructor in 1877, but began to match temperaments with Rimsky-Korsakov, who resigned in 1880. Balakirev returned to the post of director, and in 1883 premiered his finest work, the symphonic poem Tamara. Well received in Russia, Tamara was a true revelation for musicians in France, who were amazed by the textures of Russian orchestral color.

In 1883, Balakirev accepted the position of Music Director of Imperial Chapel, naming Rimsky-Korsakov as his assistant. Three years later, Balakirev quarreled with his publisher, Jurgenson, and was dropped from their roster. In 1890, Rimsky-Korsakov held a gala in honor of his own 25th anniversary as a composer; Balakirev refused to attend, occasioning the final break in their relations. Having retired from the Imperial Chapel in 1894, Balakirev made his final public appearance conducting his First Symphony at the Free School in 1898. On the strength of this symphony Balakirev acquired a new publisher, and resumed composition, including the "Glinka" Cantata (1904) and a Second Symphony (1909). Unfortunately, these later works were received with complete indifference. As he had offended practically everyone in his social circle, few friends were left to comfort Balakirev in his last years. He died at the age of 73.