‘About as Wild and Barbaric as Well could be Imagined ...’: The Critical Reception of Rimsky-Korsakov in Nineteenth-Century England

By the end of the nineteenth century Rimsky-Korsakov was the most frequently performed and best-known Russian composer in England after Tchaikovsky and Rubin-stein. However, the favourable reception that Tchaikovsky, in particular, had enjoyed in the English press was in sharp contrast to the attacks that were levelled from many sides against Rimsky-Korsakov and other composers viewed at the time as ‘Nationalist’. In this article, which builds upon recent work by Gareth Thomas, Philip Bullock, and others, I examine English critical attitudes to Rimsky-Korsakov, extending my assessment much earlier than previously attempted. In doing so, I expose and evaluate the critical environment that led to the determined advocacy of Russian music by such authors as Rosa Newmarch and her successors. I propose sources for the disputes that coloured later English interest in Russian music, at the same time suggesting that critical reception did not always shape, nor indeed reflect, audience responses.