Ballets Russes

(1909 - 1929)

5139

Cinq concerts historiques russes

Five historical Russian Concerts

Paris: Theatre de l' Opera, 1907

276 x 221 mm. 96 pages

Edition: unknown. 

 During the 1906 exhibition of Russian Art Diaghilev got acquainted with the Parisian music publisher Gabriel Astruc. He encouraged Diaghilev to organise a series of concerts with music by Russian composers. On May 16th 1907 the first concert with works by Rimsky-Korsakov, Glinka and Tchaikovsky started the series of 5 concerts. After the performance of the bass Chaliapin with Arias from Prince Igor, an opera by Borodin, the audience applauded so long that the conductor got angry and walked away. "It was a scandal" wrote a highly pleased Diaghilev to the composer Rimsky-Korsakov. To mark this 5 historical concerts of Russian music a memorial book was published on heavy glossy paper with portraits and biographies of the composers. The cover is a woodcut designed by Evgenii Lansere showing buildings in an old Russian style, previously used previously used as the title page of the ‘Mir Iskusstva’ (World of Art) magazine 1900, no. 4.

References:

Richard Buckle, Diaghilev, Londen 1979, part 3

Nijmegen 2004, p. 30