My wife is has become smitten with In The Steppes of Central Asia and the slow movement of the String Quartet, and in perusing the Composer section of the Forum I didn’t see a Borodin section so I thought I’d start one.
I think most of know the AB thought of himself primarily as a Chemist. I remember my Organic Chemistry book had a few reactions named after him, and he is primarily remembered for his work on Aldehydes. I learned recently that he developed an assay for measuring urea, something that I must review in my patients laboratory panels multiple times daily. Some of his work wasn’t brought to fruition until the eve of a WWII, indicating that as a Chemist, he was generations ahead of his time.
He was perhaps the most famous Suffragette in Tsarist Russia. He founded the St Petersberg School of Medicine for Women . I remember reading in a book dedicated to Shostakovich, possibly Testimony, where DSCH is quoting stories the Glazanouv told him about Borodin. G said something to the effect that ever time he tried to meet withBorodin, he had to wait in the ante room “because some b**** from the Provinces would be tying him up with some sob story.” He was known as being interested in the Welfare of all his students, and that was less common then than today.
He composed in his spare time (When?!). Many of his works were semi finished at his death and were brought to performing edition status by Rimsky and G. We tend think of his Music today as Conservative (albeit quite beautiful and as a source of revenue for a couple of generations of Hollywood Composers), but at the time he and the rest of the Mighty Handful were thought of as progressive for their attempts to develop a Nationalist Style for a Country whose elites looked to the Continent for Artistic Inspiration
I think most of know the AB thought of himself primarily as a Chemist. I remember my Organic Chemistry book had a few reactions named after him, and he is primarily remembered for his work on Aldehydes. I learned recently that he developed an assay for measuring urea, something that I must review in my patients laboratory panels multiple times daily. Some of his work wasn’t brought to fruition until the eve of a WWII, indicating that as a Chemist, he was generations ahead of his time.
He was perhaps the most famous Suffragette in Tsarist Russia. He founded the St Petersberg School of Medicine for Women . I remember reading in a book dedicated to Shostakovich, possibly Testimony, where DSCH is quoting stories the Glazanouv told him about Borodin. G said something to the effect that ever time he tried to meet withBorodin, he had to wait in the ante room “because some b**** from the Provinces would be tying him up with some sob story.” He was known as being interested in the Welfare of all his students, and that was less common then than today.
He composed in his spare time (When?!). Many of his works were semi finished at his death and were brought to performing edition status by Rimsky and G. We tend think of his Music today as Conservative (albeit quite beautiful and as a source of revenue for a couple of generations of Hollywood Composers), but at the time he and the rest of the Mighty Handful were thought of as progressive for their attempts to develop a Nationalist Style for a Country whose elites looked to the Continent for Artistic Inspiration
'Appens …
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