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Mili Balakirev
From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist
Mili Balakirev, in the usual spelling Mily Balakirev, was born in 1837 in Nizhny Novgorod and was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor. He is best known because he stimulated musical nationalism and encouraged more famous colleagues. As a boy he had piano lessons from his mother, and later from Karl Eisrach, who introduced him to the music of Chopin and Glinka. The music lover Alexander Ulybyshev took him under his wing. Balakirev studied mathematics in Kazan and in 1855 met Glinka in St Petersburg, who rated his talent highly, although he found his technique lacking.
Music and breakthrough
After Glinka's death in 1857, Balakirev felt that Russia should have a musical school of its own, free of Southern and Western European influence. In the late 1850s and early 1860s, together with the critic Vladimir Stasov, he brought together the composers known as The Five or The Mighty Handful: Alexander Borodin, César Cui, Modest Mussorgsky and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. For a time he was the only professional musician in the group. He was opposed to academic training and held that you had to learn by composing straight away.
Influence
He often completed his own major works years after starting them. He began his First Symphony in 1864 and only finished it in 1897; he began his Second Symphony in 1900 and it was completed in 1908. An exception is the Oriental piano piece Islamey, which he wrote quickly and which is still popular with virtuosos. Balakirev died in 1910. Many ideas that are associated with Rimsky-Korsakov or Borodin came from him.