Talk:Mily Balakirev

External Link

Should this link be added as an external link on the main Balakirev sheet music page?

* Balakirev Sheet Music   

Founder of the Migh ty five...Cui, Mussorgsky, Borodin, Rimsky-Korvsakov Not tremendously famous nor talented...but wrote his share of orginal music and had an identfiable style and achievments

I think he was quite talented, but wonder why he's listed as born in 1837 and in the category Category:1836 births. Typo, or intersection between the Julian and Gregorian systems? (And one needs an article on Mitrofan Belyayev... maybe with a different spelling there is one, or maybe I should just write the thing) Schissel-nonLop! 19:39, 18 January 2006 (UTC)

1836 births or 1837 births?

He was born in 1836 (os) and 1837 (Gregorian) I believe- which means [[Category:1836 births]] or [[Category:1837 births]] or both or neither. Similar problem with 1903/4 death year of Mitrofan Belyayev Borodin's/Glazunov's/(Balakirev's also?) publisher. Is there even so much as a guideline whether to place someone in the Julian or Gregorian year category when this comes up? I placed Belyayev in 1904 deaths (as he is on de:, btw), Balakirev is however in 1836 births. Discuss? (Ah, I see I brought this up before just above, and didn't even read my own writing- but at least now have an answer to my question...) Schissel | Sound the Note! 18:50, 20 September 2006 (UTC)

Pronunciation of the name

Can someone who knows the proper Russian pronunciation of "Balakirev" please indicate where the tonic stress accent should fall? Dveej (talk) 16:11, 29 February 2008 (UTC)

Chineese composer? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 91.148.92.198 (talk) 22:43, 6 October 2008 (UTC)

I've added the pronunciation of Balakirev, the emphasis is on the second syllable--67.176.197.128 (talk) 00:18, 12 May 2009 (UTC)

Composer project review

I've reviewed this article as part of the Composers project review of its B-class articles. I find this to be a weak B-class article; I've changed the Biography and Russian ratings (previously Start) to C. The article has defects of both content and form; read the detailed review on the comments page. Questions or comments can be left here or on my talk page. Magic♪piano 21:06, 9 December 2008 (UTC)

Does anyone know about his personal life? Family? Children?--67.176.197.128 (talk) 00:21, 12 May 2009 (UTC)

User:Jonyungk asked me to look at the article again. I find it to be much improved, although (as the anonymous commenter also indicates) there is still little on personal (as opposed to professional) relationships. I don't know if this would cause problems with a GA review -- this might well depend on the reviewer. Magic♪piano 13:46, 28 December 2009 (UTC)

Thanks for looking over the article once more. To the best of my knowledge, Balakirev never married nor had any close personal relationships, except for those which also had a professional connection, such as Rimsky-Korsakov and Lyapunov; especially in his later years, except for professional gatherings at his home, he basically lived a hermitic lifestyle. However, since there is apparently no in-depth biography of Balakirev in English, I would be hard-pressed to confirm or deny this information. Perhaps someone else knows of a biography or other biographical source that would help in this situation? Jonyungk (talk) 20:56, 28 December 2009 (UTC)

I suspected there might be a shortage of this sort of information. Perhaps a Russian-reading editor can be interested to look into this? Magic♪piano 22:05, 28 December 2009 (UTC)

Comments

Here are some comments looking at the article.

• Images - where a date is given with an image, it helps to provide the date in the caption as well (so the lead image caption would read better as "Portrait of Balakirev around 1900"). As usual, I am guessing many of the images will need some detective work to make sure they are really free to use here. Oh joy. ;-)
• Lead - seems fine (I am reading and commenting, so I am not sure if it is a comprehensive overview yet). I would try to add some years to the lead to give the reader a rough time scale - as it is we know when he was born and died, and there are dates for his First Symphony, but no other years / dates given.
• Early years - it might help to give the rough distance between Nizhny Novgorod and Moscow (so we know what an undertaking iot was for his mother to take him there).
• Needs some context in this sentence: After his mother's death, Balakirev was transferred from the Gymnasium to the Alexandrovsky Institute, where he boarded. Can the year of his mother's death be added? Also where was the borading school? Assume in Nizhny Novgorod but it would help to make this clearer.
• Problem sentence Eisrach and Oulibichev also allowed Balakirev to rehearse the count's private orchestra in orchestral and choral works. we have not been told that Oulibichev is a count before (only that he is a nobleman). Also would it be clearer to say something like ...allowed Balakirev to conduct the count's private orchestra in rehearsals of orchestral and choral works. ?
• Probably also want to change At 15 he was allowed to rehearse Ludwig van Beethoven's First and Eighth Symphonies. to something like At 15 he was allowed to lead [conduct?] rehearsals of Ludwig van Beethoven's First and Eighth Symphonies.
• I would keep the focus on Balakirev in Balakirev left the Alexandrovsky Institute in 1853 and with his friend (and later novelist) P.D. Boborikin entered the University of Kazan as a mathematics student. - perhaps something like Balakirev left the Alexandrovsky Institute in 1853 and entered the University of Kazan as a mathematics student, along with his friend P.D. Boborikin, who later became a novelist.
• Tweak this: [Works f]rom this period date [include] the piano fantasy based on themes from Glinka's opera A Life for the Tsar, an attempt at a string quartet, ...
• The Five - Would it help to add the Russian here (moguya kuchka sp??) Together with Cui, these men were described by noted critic Vladimir Stasov as "a mighty handful", but they eventually became better known in English simply as The Five.
• Whenever I read a sentence like this, I wonder if it would be better as a (full or partial) direct quotation: As an instructor and influence of magnetic personality, Balakirev inspired his comrades to improbable heights of musical creativity.[1]
• Recast this sentence? [After the success of Alexander Serov's opera Judith in 1863,] the other members of The Five also became interested in writing opera, a genre Balakirev did not consider highly, after the success of Alexander Serov's opera Judith in 1863, and; the rest of The Five gravitated toward Alexander Dargomizhsky as a mentor in this field.[12] not great, but gives an idea

OK, I will make more comments soon, stopping here for now. Looks pretty good so far, Ruhrfisch _><>°^° 16:16, 13 April 2010 (UTC)

• Saint Petersburg Conservatory and Free School of Music - Not clear who was to be director of the RMS - Balakirev? At stake was a viable career in music as artistic director of the Russian Musical Society.[13]
• Mature works and Prague visit - Make clear that it is a poem by Pushkin that Balakirev set to music?
• Simplify (a subject upon which Igor Stravinsky would later base his ballet The Firebird) to something like (which Igor Stravinsky later used as the basis for his ballet The Firebird)
• Should the sentences on Islamey mention it is a work for piano?
• would "who" work here? The Prague production of A Life for the Tsar under the direction of Bedřich Smetana reportedly horrified Balakirev, with Balakirev taking [who took] issue with the musical tempos, the casting of various roles,...
• Waning influence and friendship with Tchaikovsky - fragment This programme, originally penned by Stasov for Hector Berlioz, was . not sure what the missing word or phrase is
• Unclear - why did the Duchess attending concerts personally cause a deline in membership in the RMS? This rivalry caused financial difficulties for both concert societies as RMS membership declined and the Free Music School continued to suffer from chronic money troubles.
• Needs a ref Balakirev died on May 29, 1910 and was interred in Tikhvin Cemetery at the Alexander Nevsky Monastery in Saint Petersburg.
• Personal life - There has to be a smoother way to say this Balakirev apparently never married nor had any children since none is mentioned in biographical sources.
• Music - Unfortunately, the protracted composition of several [of his?] works robbed Balakirev of the credit for their inventiveness.
• Influences - should this be past tense (advanced)? However, Balakirev advances on Glinka's technique of using "variations with changing backgrounds," reconciling ...
• I glazed over a bit on some of the musical theory - sorry. I do think this needs to be more clearly attributed (who thinks it may be his greatest work)? Tamara may be considered Balakirev's greatest work as well as a touchstone of orientalism.

General points

• the MOS allows changes in the first letter of a quote (capitla to lower case or vice versa) without showing it explicitly - so "[H]e was a composer" could just be "He was a composer".
• I would check for overlinking / making sure links appear at first mention.

Hope this helps, and very nice job so far, Ruhrfisch _><>°^° 18:54, 13 April 2010 (UTC)

Assessment comment

Template:Substituted comment Substituted at 00:07, 30 April 2016 (UTC)

Include major works in Introduction

The introduction as it stands, appears to suggest that Balakirev is only responsible for bringing the Five together, and he didn’t complete any major work. Most composer leads include the composers major or most popular works. He was the only professional composer of the five. We should be including his incidental music to Shakespeare’s play King Lear and Islamey (fantasy for piano) in the lead. King Lear has been recored at least three times on CD, and has had several publications and revisions. It could have its own article if anyone is up to the job!  SurreyJohn   (Talk) 10:21, 14 September 2017 (UTC)

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