Anton Rubinstein and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov: Selected Operas. Proceedings of the International Musicological Convention in Vorzel (Ukraine), May 4th-6th, 1994.(Review)

Ed. by Yelena S. Zinkevich. pp. 83. (Lucie Galland, Heilbronn, 1997, DM29. ISBN 3-925934-29-4.)

This collection of essays, based on papers given at a conference commemorating the 150th anniversary of the birth of Rimsky-Korsakov and the centenary of the death of Anton Rubinstein, instead of being published in the original Russian, appears in translations into English, French and German. Only three of the essays are not in English, which is a pity, since with one exception the English translations are at best poor, at worst appalling. Furthermore, there are no music examples, nor even any clues as to what musical illustrations were heard during the reading of the papers.

All this is most unfortunate, since, although the essays on Rimsky-Korsakov reveal little that is new concerning a composer whose operas have already been very well covered in the literature, those on Rubinstein, who has been neglected in his own country as well as abroad, could have been of great interest. For instance, in the case of the first essay, …