In this name that follows Eastern Slavic naming customs, the patronymic is Alexeyevich and the family name is Balakirev.
Mily Balakirev
Portrait of Balakirev, c. 1900
Born
Mily Alexeyevich Balakirev
2 January 1837 [O.S. 21 December 1836]
Nizhny Novgorod
Died
29 May [O.S. 16 May] 1910 (aged 73)
Saint Petersburg
Occupations
Pianist
composer
conductor
Works
List of compositions
Mily Alexeyevich Balakirev (UK: /bəˈlækɪrɛv,-ˈlɑːk-/bə-LA(H)K-i-rev, US: /ˌbɑːlɑːˈkɪərɛf/BAH-lah-KEER-ef; Russian: Милий Алексеевич Балакирев,[note 1]pronounced[ˈmʲilʲɪjɐlʲɪkˈsʲe(j)ɪvʲɪdʑbɐˈlakʲɪrʲɪf]ⓘ; 2 January 1837 [O.S. 21 December 1836] – 29 May [O.S. 16 May] 1910)[note 2] was a Russian composer, pianist, and conductor known today primarily for his work promoting musical nationalism and his encouragement of more famous Russian composers, notably Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. He began his career as a pivotal figure, extending the fusion of traditional folk music and experimental classical music practices begun by composer Mikhail Glinka. In the process, Balakirev developed musical patterns that could express overt nationalistic feeling. After a nervous breakdown and consequent sabbatical, he returned to classical music but did not wield the same level of influence as before.
In conjunction with critic and fellow nationalist Vladimir Stasov, in the late 1850s and early 1860s, Balakirev brought together the composers now known as The Five (a.k.a., The Mighty Handful) – the others were Alexander Borodin, César Cui, Modest Mussorgsky, and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. For several years, Balakirev was the only professional musician of the group; the others were amateurs limited in musical education. He imparted to them his musical beliefs, which continued to underlie their thinking long after he left the group in 1871, and encouraged their compositional efforts. While his methods could be dictatorial, the results of his influence were several works which established these composers' reputations individually and as a group. He performed a similar function for Tchaikovsky at two points in the latter's career – in 1868–69 with the fantasy-overture Romeo and Juliet, and in 1882–85 with the Manfred Symphony.
As a composer, Balakirev finished major works many years after he had started them; he began his First Symphony in 1864 but completed it in 1897. The exception to this was his oriental fantasy Islamey for solo piano, which he composed quickly and remains popular among virtuosos. Often, the musical ideas normally associated with Rimsky-Korsakov or Borodin originated in Balakirev's compositions, which Balakirev played at informal gatherings of The Five. However, his slow pace in completing works for the public deprived him of credit for his inventiveness, and pieces that would have enjoyed success had they been completed in the 1860s and 1870s made a much smaller impact.
Balakirev began work on a second symphony, Symphony No. 2 in D minor in 1900, but did not complete the work until 1908.
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Balakirev may refer to: MilyBalakirev, a Russian pianist, conductor and composer Balakirev the Buffoon, a 2002 Russian television adaptation of Lenkom...
other compositional characteristics. The Five, made up of composers MilyBalakirev, Alexander Borodin, César Cui, Modest Mussorgsky, and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov...
The following is a list of compositions by Russian composer MilyBalakirev. All are for solo piano unless otherwise indicated below. Piano Concerto No...
playing these files? See media help. Borodin met MilyBalakirev during 1862. While under Balakirev's tutelage in composition he began his Symphony No...
composer MilyBalakirev, who provided him the program, which had a long history. Critic Vladimir Stasov had written it and sent it to Balakirev in 1868...
Although Mussorgsky was proud of his youthful effort, his mentor, MilyBalakirev, refused to perform it. To salvage what he considered worthy material...
letters to MilyBalakirev, the composer signed his name "Musorskiy" (Мусoрский). The "g" made its first appearance in a letter to Balakirev in 1863. Mussorgsky...
Восточная фантазия), is a composition for piano by Russian composer MilyBalakirev written in 1869. Harold C. Schonberg noted that Islamey was "at one...
up mily in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. Mily may refer to: Juraj Milý (born 1996), Slovak ice hockey player MilyBalakirevMily Clément Mily Possoz...
collected by MilyBalakirev and published in his book of folk songs in 1866. It was sung by burlaks, or barge-haulers, on the Volga River. Balakirev published...
1, by Moritz Moszkowski, and several examples by Anton Rubinstein, MilyBalakirev, Alexander Glazunov, Edward MacDowell, Mel Bonis, Ethelbert Nevin; and...
emergence in particular of The Five, a group of composers associated with MilyBalakirev, and of the more German style of Pyotr Tchaikovsky. In the period of...
film Tamara (play), by John Krizanc, 1981 Tamara (symphonic poem), by MilyBalakirev, 1882, and a 1912 ballet by Michel Fokine and Léon Bakst 326 Tamara...
Musical Society, critic Vladimir Stasov and an 18-year-old pianist, MilyBalakirev, met and agreed upon a nationalist agenda for Russian music, one that...
song performed by Muslim Magomayev, is one of his most popular works MilyBalakirev: 3 for solo piano Samuel Barber: the last of Four Songs, for voice and...
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, he penned seminal writings on the works of MilyBalakirev, Alexander Dargomyzhsky, and Sergei Rachmaninoff. In 1969 he was named...
ägyptische Helena, opera with libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal (1929) MilyBalakirev – Tamara Alexander Borodin – In the Steppes of Central Asia; "Polovetsian...
Island. It was named by the USSR Academy of Sciences, in 1987, after MilyBalakirev, the Russian composer. List of glaciers in the Antarctic Glaciology...
for Chandos, including works by Karol Szymanowski, Rodion Shchedrin, MilyBalakirev, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, and Franz Schreker, as well as a series of...
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