Borodin was the illegitimate son of Prince Luka Gedianov but
was registered as the legal son of Porfiry Borodin — one of the
Prince's serfs - a practice typical of the time. His mother, a
cultured woman, educated him at home in St Petersburg, where he
showed an aptitude for chemistry and languages while also learning
the flute, piano, cello, and composition.
From 1850 he studied at the Medico-Surgical Academy in St
Petersburg and graduated in 1856 with high honours, completing his
doctorate two years later. His academic work involved a number of
trips abroad, particularly to Germany, where he became friends
with the chemist Mendeleyev. He also met Ekaterina Protopopova,
herself an accomplished pianist, who was being treated for
tuberculosis. They fell in love and married in 1863 after
returning to St Petersburg, where Borodin was appointed chemistry
professor at the Medico-Surgical Academy in 1864.
Throughout this time he remained interested in music, playing
string quintets with friends and piano duets with Ekaterina. He
met Mussorgsky and Balakirev in 1862 and became part of the group
of Russian nationalist composers known as "The Five". They
encouraged him in the composition of his First symphony,
which took five years to complete. The first public performance in
1869 was a success, and the same year he began his second.
Borodin also began work on an opera, Prince
Igor, whose Russian theme appealed to his nationalist
sentiments. It did not progress well, however, and some of the
music found its way into his Second symphony. His teaching
duties at the Academy increased in 1 872 with the institution of
courses in medicine for women and he only resumed work on
Prince Igor. and its famous Polovtsian dances, two
years later. Progress on the work was slow, and Borodm broke off
again in 1881 to write the Second string quartet, dedicated
to his wife. The slow movement
("Nocturne") became very popular, with its haunting, nostalgic
main theme introduced on Borodin's own instrument, the cello. His
admiration for Mendelssohn, as well as a similar skill with
melody, is clearly demonstrated in this work.
Borodin's fame in Europe was helped by Liszt, who arranged for
a performance of the First symphony in Baden-Baden in 1880,
the same year in which Borodin completed his evocative tone-poem
In the steppes of Central Asia. His popularity increased
throughout the mid-1880s, but in 1885 he suffered an attack of
cholera, which left him severely weakened. He died two years later
from a heart attack at a fancy-dress ball. His beloved Ekaterina
followed him only five months later.
Prince Igor was finished after Borodin's death by Glazunov
and Rimsky-Korsakov. Borodin's failure to complete it resulted in
part from a badly planned libretto; certain individual numbers,
such as the rousing, folk-based Polovtsian dances, are
markedly better than the whole. However, his symphonies and string
quartets, as well as the memorable In the steppes of Central
Asia, have guaranteed Borodin's popularity during the century
since his death.
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