Savannah Music Festival LIVE 543 – Russian Masterworks, Part Two

The strongest unified movement toward Russian nationalistic expression in 19th century concert music occurred during the 1860s with the formation of a group of composers dubbed “the five” or “the mighty handful.” They included Mily Balakirev, Alexander Borodin, Cesar Cui, Modest Mussorgsky and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. It was the beginning of a nationalistic sound that would eventually become part of formal musical training in Russia, thus leaving the world with a rich legacy of Russian masterworks. In this episode, we listen to Borodin’s String Sextet in D minor, Arensky’s String Quartet No. 2 in A minor, Op. 35 and Shostakovich’s String Quartet No. 7 in F sharp minor, Op. 108.