- Described by Balakirev as an “oriental fantasy,” Islamey is a piano work he completed in 1869. Balakirev revised the piece in 1902.1
- Balakirev found inspiration for this piece during a series of trips he made to the Caucases in the 1860s.2
- He reported collecting the work’s opening theme during one of his visits. (Click the link to see the theme in a manuscript and to read a quote by Balakirev about the theme’s origin, if you like. The quote is all over the internet but I’m not copying it here because I can’t find a primary source in order to properly cite it.)
- Balakirev dedicated this piece to Nicolai Rubinstein, founder of the Moscow Conservatory. Rubinstein played the work’s premiere on December 12, 1869,3 at a concert at the Free School of Music in St. Petersburg.4
- Balakirev’s Grove article observes that this collaboration shows that Nicolai was more interested in forging connections with Russian nationalist music than his brother Anton Rubinstein (founder of the St. Petersburg Conservatory) – after all, Balakirev had helped found the Free School of Music as a counterpoint to the Rubinsteins’ more cosmopolitan conservatories in St. Petersburg and Moscow.5
Sources
- Stuart Campbell, “Balakirev, Mily Alekseyevich,” Grove Music Online (2001), accessed October 20, 2021, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000040685.
- Ibid.
- Ibid.
- Gerald Abraham and Edward Garden, “Mily Balakirev,” in The New Grove Russian Masters Vol. I, ed. David Brown et al (New York: Norton, 1986), 85.
- Campbell, “Balakirev, Mily Alekseyevich,” Grove Music Online.
Cut IDs
12865 41636 41805