Rimsky-Korsakov, Nikolai Andreyevich. Autograph music manuscript. Opera "Snegurochka (Snow Maiden)". Prologue. ...

Rimsky-Korsakov, Nikolai Andreyevich. Autograph music manuscript. Opera "Snegurochka (Snow Maiden)". Prologue. Score. Early 1880s. 10 p. 26 x 37.7 cm. Notes: rare: autograph music by Rimsky-Korsakov is exceedingly rare at auction.
Description:
The Prologue score was written by the composer in his own hand in black ink on music paper. Nine pages contain 60 measures scored for 16 voices. On page 10 is the beginning of “Recitative and Aria of Spring”, comprising 16 measures for 18 voices. On the first sheet of the score, on blank score lines in the middle is a dedicatory inscription by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, addressed to Vassily Yastrebtsev: “It’s been fifteen years since I began, as a joke and to amuse my capricious and whimsical mind, the opera "Snegurochka" -- February 27, 1895. / N.-R. Korsakov / To V.V. Yastrebtsev as a remembrance." The dedication refers to Spring's Aria and Recitative in the Prologue where Spring tells the story of Snegurochka's birth: "It’s been sixteen years since I began, as a joke and to amuse my capricious and whimsical mind, to flirt with Frost…" In the upper right corner of the first sheet, there is a gift inscription by Vassily Yastrebtsev's widow addressed to Georgy Rimsky-Korsakov, the composer's grandson: "To dear Georgy Mikhailovich Rimsky-Korsakov / as a memory of Vassily Vassilievich and a token / of our friendship E. Yastrebtseva 6 V 36." The story of this autograph was published in the first volume of V.V. Yastrebtsev's memoir about N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov (Leningrad: Gos. Muz. Izd., 1959, p. 268). Provenance: from the archive of G.M. Rimsky-Korsakov’s widow.
Information:
“Snegurochka” is an opera by N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov in four acts and seven scenes with a Prologue, written to the composer’s own libretto after the play of the same name by Alexander Ostrovsky. “Snegurochka” was the favorite creation of the composer. It was premiered on February 10, 1882, in the Mariinsky Theater. Provenance: from the archive of G.M. Rimsky-Korsakov’s widow. Nikolay Andreevich Rimsky-Korsakov (1844--1908) was a preeminent Russian composer, pedagogue, conductor, public figure, music critic; a member of the Mighty Five ( Russian "Moguchaya Kuchka", “The Mighty Handful”).