The fundamental nucleus of Russian nationalism known as "The Five", originated in St. Petersburg in the second half of the 19th century to encourage the creation of properly Russian music, counted among its spirited members a brilliant creator in the person of Modest Mussorgsky, a masterful composer like Rimsky-Korsakov, a great leader like Balakirev, the indispensable theoretician in the person of César Cui, and a doctor in chemistry, Alexander Borodin.
Borodin, the scientist
In fact, Borodin, the illegitimate son of a Russian prince and the legitimate wife of a doctor in his army, – that is, the prince's army –, was a dilettante musician, meaning a musician who made music for the simple pleasure of doing so. Although at the age of nine he had already taken his first flute and piano lessons, and composed his first concerto for these instruments at the age of fourteen, Alexander Borodin soon realized that his true passion was science. In 1850, at the age of 17, he entered the St. Petersburg Medical-Surgical Academy, where he chose chemistry as his special interest.
Borodin, the musician
Around the same time, however, he composed his first songs and formed a string quintet with a group of friends. Nothing strange, then, that three years after obtaining his doctorate with the thesis "About the analogy of arsenic with phosphoric acid", the musician Borodin composed a celebrated Quintet in C major that attracted the attention of The Five, which he joined, later strengthening close bonds with Balakirev and Mussorgsky.
Prince IgorAlexander Borodin (1833 - 1887)
Around 1869, when he had already composed his first symphony, he felt that the theatrical genre was calling for him and began work on what was to be his masterpiece, the opera Prince Igor. But his scientific career also called for him. As a full professor at the Academy, he had to travel outside Russia often, visiting universities, and even working on joint research with European scientists, which incidentally resulted in the discovery of a couple of chemical reactions that today bear his name, shared.
An unforeseen ending
So Prince Igor had to wait, until 1887 when he was able to take it up again. Unfortunately, on the evening of February 17 of that year, while exercising some dance steps at a costume party organized by the Academy, dressed in the Russian peasant style, he fell to the ground, struck by a heart attack. His most ambitious work had to be finished by his friends Rimsky-Korsakov and Alexander Glazunov. Its premiere took place to great acclaim in November 1890 at the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg.
Polovtsian Dances from Prince Igor
With a libretto by the composer and inspired by a medieval poem, the action of the work is set in the year 1185 and narrates the struggle of Prince Igor against the Polovtsians, an invading tribe. The Polovtsian Dances constitute a brilliant moment in Act II, when Igor, taken prisoner with his son, is offered his freedom in exchange for an alliance that the prince refuses, which arouses the admiration of his enemy, who then commands dances in his honor.
The solidarity group "Músicos para la Paz", performs an orchestral version, conducted by the Spanish maestro Andrés Salado.
