Question by greydoc6: Do you think Mili Balakirev is under-rated or under-appreciated?
as a great composer?
Answers and Views:
Answer by Nick
I don’t consider Balakirev to be a “great” composer,
But I would say he is under-rated. Mainly because his most famous piece (Islamey) is one of the most difficult, so people only want to listen to “the most difficult piece for piano”, but they don’t care to listen to any of the composer’s other works. (The same thing happened to me when I first discovered Liszt years ago)
I mean, this is a wonderful piece
http://goo.gl/w6vAJ1
But it’s less popular than
http://goo.gl/3ezKUy
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del_icious_manager says
I agree with Nick. Balakirev was not a ‘great’ composer. Balakirev was an important figure in the rise of the Russian ‘nationalist’ school of composition, but as a composer he couldn’t hold a candle to Musorgsky or Rimsky-Korsakov (or even Tchaikovsky). His two symphonies are pleasant enough (especially the first), but are a bit wobbly structurally and lack that last degree of memorability.
Malcolm D says
Not really, he was rather overshadowed by his pupils. He is really only known for two works… the diabolically difficult “Islamey” and the symphonic poem “Tamara.”
fierydog says
I would replace Modest Mussorgsky with Mily Balakirev any day, yes. But that is just my amateur opinion.