Alexander Borodin
Alexander Porfiryevich Borodin (12 November 1833 – 27 February 1887) was a Russian doctor, chemist, and Romantic musical composer of Georgian ancestry.
He was one of the prominent 19th-century composers known as “The Five”, a group dedicated to producing a uniquely Russian kind of Classical music.
A doctor and chemist by profession and training, Borodin made important early contributions to organic chemistry.
Although he is presently known better as a composer, he regarded medicine and science as his primary occupations, only practicing music and composition in his spare time or when he was ill.
As a chemist, Borodin is known best for his work concerning organic synthesis, including being among the first chemists to demonstrate nucleophilic substitution, as well as being the co-discoverer of the aldol reaction.
Borodin was a promoter of education in Russia and founded the School of Medicine for Women in Saint Petersburg, where he taught until 1885.
Family and education
Borodin was born in Saint Petersburg as an illegitimate son of a 62-year-old Georgian nobleman, Luka Stepanovich Gedevanishvili, and a married 25-year-old Russian woman, Evdokia Konstantinovna Antonova.
Due to the circumstances of Alexander’s birth, the nobleman had him registered as the son of one of his Russian serfs, Porfiry Borodin, hence the composer’s Russian last name.
The Georgian father emancipated Alexander from serfdom when he was 7 years old and provided housing and money for him and his mother.
Despite this, Alexander was never publicly recognized by his mother, who was referred to by young Borodin as his “aunt”.
Despite his status as a commoner, Borodin was well provided for by his Georgian father and grew up in a large four-story house, which was gifted to Alexander and his “aunt” by the nobleman.
Although his registration prevented enrollment in a proper gymnasium, Borodin received a good education in all of the subjects through private tutors at home.
In 1850 he enrolled in the Medical-Surgical Academy in Saint Petersburg, which was later the workplace of Ivan Pavlov, and pursued a career in chemistry.
On graduation, he spent a year as a surgeon in a military hospital, followed by three years of advanced scientific study in western Europe.
In 1862 Borodin returned to Saint Petersburg to begin a professorship of chemistry at the Imperial Medical-Surgical Academy and spent the remainder of his scientific career in research, lecturing, and overseeing the education of others. Eventually, he established medical courses for women (1872).
He began taking lessons in composition from Mily Balakirev in 1862.
He married Ekaterina Protopopova, a pianist, in 1863, and had at least one daughter, named Gania.
Music remained a secondary vocation for Borodin besides his main career as a chemist and physician.
He suffered poor health, having overcome cholera and several minor heart failures.
He died suddenly during a ball at the Academy and was interred in Tikhvin Cemetery at the Alexander Nevsky Monastery in Saint Petersburg.
Career as a chemist
In his profession Borodin gained great respect, being particularly noted for his work on aldehydes.
Between 1859 and 1862 Borodin had a postdoctoral position at Heidelberg University. He worked in the laboratory of Emil Erlenmeyer working on benzene derivatives.
He also spent time in Pisa, working on halocarbons. One experiment published in 1862 described the first nucleophilic displacement of chlorine by fluorine in benzoyl chloride.
The radical halodecarboxylation of aliphatic carboxylic acids was first demonstrated by Borodin in 1861 by his synthesis of methyl bromide from silver acetate.
It was Heinz Hunsdiecker and his wife Cläre, however, who developed Borodin’s work into a general method, for which they were granted a US patent in 1939, and which they published in the journal Chemische Berichte in 1942.
The method is generally known as either the Hunsdiecker reaction or the Hunsdiecker–Borodin reaction.
In 1862, Borodin returned to the Medical-Surgical Academy (now known as the S.M. Kirov Military Medical Academy) and accepted a professorship of chemistry.
He worked on the self-condensation of small aldehydes in a process now known as the aldol reaction, the discovery of which is jointly credited to Borodin and Charles-Adolphe Wurtz.
Borodin investigated the condensation of valerian aldehyde and oenanth aldehyde, which was reported by von Richter in 1869.
In 1873, he described his work to the Russian Chemical Society and noted similarities with compounds recently reported by Wurtz.
He published his last full article in 1875 on reactions of amides and his last publication concerned a method for the identification of urea in animal urine.
His successor as chemistry professor of the Medical-Surgical academy was his son-in-law and fellow chemist, Alexander Dianin.
Opera and orchestral works
Borodin met Mily Balakirev during 1862. While under Balakirev’s tutelage in composition he began his Symphony No. 1 in E-flat major; it was first performed in 1869, with Balakirev conducting.
During that same year Borodin started on his Symphony No. 2 in B minor, which was not particularly successful at its premiere in 1877 under Eduard Nápravník, but with some minor re-orchestration received a successful performance during 1879 by the Free Music School under Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s direction.
In 1880 he composed the popular symphonic poem In the Steppes of Central Asia. Two years later he began composing a third symphony, but left it unfinished at his death; two movements of it were later completed and orchestrated by Alexander Glazunov.
In 1868 Borodin became distracted from initial work on the second symphony by the preoccupation with the opera Prince Igor, which is considered by some to be his most significant work and one of the most important historical Russian operas.
It contains the Polovtsian Dances, often performed as a stand-alone concert work forming what is probably Borodin’s best-known composition. Borodin left the opera (and a few other works) incomplete at his death.
Prince Igor was completed posthumously by Rimsky-Korsakov and Alexander Glazunov.
It is set in the 12th century, when the Russians, commanded by Prince Igor of Seversk, determined to conquer the barbarous Polovtsians by traveling eastward across the Steppes.
The Polovtsians were apparently a nomadic tribe originally of Turkish origin who habitually attacked southern Russia.
A full solar eclipse early during the first act foreshadows an ominous outcome to the invasion. Prince Igor’s troops are defeated.
The story tells of the capture of Prince Igor, and his son, Vladimir, of Russia by Polovtsian chief Khan Konchak, who entertains his prisoners lavishly and orders his slaves to perform the famous ‘Polovtsian Dances‘, which provide a thrilling climax to the second act.
The second half of the opera finds Prince Igor returning to his homeland, but rather than finding himself in disgrace, he is welcomed home by the townspeople and by his wife, Yaroslavna.
Although for a while rarely performed in its entirety outside of Russia, this opera has received two notable new productions recently, one at the Bolshoi State Opera and Ballet Company in Russia in 2013, and one at the Metropolitan Opera Company of New York City in 2014.
Chamber music
No other member of the Balakirev circle identified himself so much with absolute music as did Borodin in his two string quartets, in addition to his many earlier chamber compositions.
As a cellist, he was an enthusiastic chamber music player, an interest that increased during his chemical studies in Heidelberg between 1859 and 1861.
This early period yielded, among other chamber works, a string sextet and a piano quintet. Borodin based the thematic structure and instrumental texture of his pieces on those of Felix Mendelssohn.
In 1875 Borodin started his First String Quartet, much to the displeasure of Mussorgsky and Vladimir Stasov; the other members of The Five were known to be hostile to chamber music.
The First Quartet demonstrates mastery of the string quartet form. Borodin’s Second Quartet, written in 1881, displays strong lyricism, as in the third movement’s popular “Nocturne.”
While the First Quartet is richer in changes of mood, the Second Quartet has a more uniform atmosphere and expression.
Musical legacy
Borodin’s fame outside the Russian Empire was made possible during his lifetime by Franz Liszt, who arranged a performance of the Symphony No. 1 in Germany in 1880, and by the Comtesse de Mercy-Argenteau in Belgium and France.
His music is noted for its strong lyricism and rich harmonies. Along with some influences from Western composers, as a member of The Five, his music has also a Russian style.
His passionate music and unusual harmonies proved to have a lasting influence on the younger French composers Debussy and Ravel (in homage, the latter composed 1913 a piano piece entitled “À la manière de Borodine”).
The evocative characteristics of Borodin’s music made possible the adaptation of his compositions in the 1953 musical Kismet, by Robert Wright and George Forrest, notably in the songs “Stranger in Paradise”, and “And This Is My Beloved” and “Baubles, Bangles, & Beads”.
In 1954, Borodin was posthumously awarded a Tony Award for this show.
Symphony No.1 in E flat major
Borodin’s first symphony was begun following the advice of Balakirev in 1862. Although by the end of that year the first movement was almost finished, the work would take several years to be finished.
In fact, Borodin’s use of rhythm as thematic development is just as important as the melodic or harmonic aspects, and it is there that comparison to Beethoven can be made. While there are occasional melodies and tonalities that sound typically Russian, stylistically this early work is still beholden to the ghosts of Robert Schumann and Felix Mendelssohn.
This first effort already displays the orchestral color, magnificence, rhythmic vitality, and nationalistic identity of Borodin’s mature style.
The movements are:
I – Adagio – Allegro – Andantino: 0:00
II – Scherzo. Prestissimo – Trio. Allegro – Prestissimo: 11:02
III – Andante: 17:34
IV – Allegro molto vivo: 25:14
In the video, the symphony is performed by Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Michel Plasson.
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Second Symphony
The movements are:
I. Allegro moderato 0:03
II. Scherzo. Molto vivo 7:19
III. Andante 12:30
IV. Finale. Allegro 21:54
In the video, the symphony is performed by the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra conducted by Karel Mark Chichon.
Here is another video showing a performance of the symphony by the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Sergey Smbatyan.
Finally, here is an older video performance by the Moscow Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Vladimir Fedoseyev.
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Overture from Prince Igor
Prince Igor is an opera in four acts with a prologue. The composer adapted the libretto from the East Slavic epic The Lay of Igor’s Host, which recounts the campaign of Russian prince Igor Svyatoslavich against the invading Polovtsian tribes in 1185. The opera was left unfinished upon the composer’s death in 1887 and was edited and completed by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and Alexander Glazunov. It was first performed in St. Petersburg, Russia, in 1890.
In the video, the overture is performed by Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Yuri Botnari.
Polovtsian Dances from Prince Igor
Introduction – Andantino
Gliding Dance of the Maidens – Andantino
Wild Dance of the Men – Allegro vivo
General Dance – Allegro
Dance of the Boys and 2nd Dance of the Men – Presto
Gliding Dance of the Maidens (reprise, soon combined with the faster dancing of the boys – Moderato alla breve
Dance of the Boys and 2nd Dance of the Men (reprise) – Presto
General Dance – Allegro con spirito
The video shows a live performance by the Kirov (Mariinsky) Opera Company conducted by Valery Gergiev.
This video is a live concert performance in the Madrid National Music Auditorium conducted by Andrés Salado.
String Quartet No. 1 in A major, written in 1874-1879
When Borodin began sketching out his first string quartet in 1873, he wanted to produce something identifiably Russian, rather than follow German traditions slavishly. Yet he was not fully committed to the musical nationalism of Mussorgsky and other members of the Mighty Handful. The resulting quartet contains many Slavic touches, written as it was during the long gestation of Borodin’s opera Prince Igor, but it takes a predominantly Classical (German) form. Borodin had the quartet sketched out by 1875, did substantial work on it in 1877, and completed it in 1879.
The movements are:
00:00 – I. Moderato
13:58 – II. Andante con moto
22:28 – III. Scherzo. Prestissimo
28:24 – IV. Finale. Andante. Allegro Risoluto
In the video the quartet is performed by the Moscow String Quartet in a recording from 1995.
Here is a video of an older performance by the Borodin String Quartet (Mikhail Kopelman – Andrei Abramenkov – Dmitri Shebalin – Valentin Berlinsky) recorded in 1978. This performance is second to none.
String Quartet No. 2 in D major, written in 1881
Borodin’s String Quartet No. 2 in D major differs from many of the composer’s other works in two ways: it was completed quickly, in August 1881, and it lacks a published program. These two factors may be related; Borodin dedicated the quartet to his wife Ekaterina, and it was written as an evocation of when they met and fell in love in Heidelberg 20 years earlier. The composer seems to have represented himself in this quartet with the cello (he was an amateur player), while Ekaterina is portrayed by the first violin. Each of the movements is warm and blissful, the whole suggesting the depiction of a growing, deepening love.
As love letters go, Borodin’s String Quartet No. 2 is unsurpassed; as string quartets go, it is deservedly loved.
The movements are:
00:00 – I. Allegro moderato in D major and 2/2 time
08:26 – II. Scherzo. Allegro in F major and 3/4 time
13:19 – III. Notturno (Nocturne): Andante in A major and 3/4 time
22:03 – IV. Finale: Andante — Vivace in D major and 2/4 time
In the video, the quartet is performed by the Borodin String Quartet in a recording from 1980.
Here is another video of a live performance from 1973 by the Borodin String Quartet (Rostislav Dubinsky, Yaroslav Alexandrov, Dmitri Shebalin, and Valentin Berlinsky)
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In the Steppes of Central Asia
In 1880, as part of the celebrations for the 25th year of Tsar Alexander II’s reign, two producers were supposed to contribute a series of small dramas glorifying Alexander’s successes. Twelve Russian composers were contacted to provide incidental music for these scenes. The producers dropped out of sight before the festival, and Borodin seems to have been the only composer who responded to the call. The musical picture he wrote for the occasion, In the Steppes of Central Asia, became famous in its own right almost immediately, both at home and elsewhere.
The work is dedicated to Franz Liszt, master of the programmatic orchestral tone poem, a form to which Borodin brings a distinctly Russian mood.
The video shows a performance by the Dresden Staatskapelle conducted by Kurt Sanderling.
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