"Of all the Slav composers Rimsky-Korsakoff is perhaps the most charming,
and as a musician the most remarkable," writes the music-critic of
the _Mercure de France_. "He has not been equalled by any of his
compatriots in the art of handling timbres, and in this art the
Russian school has been long distinguished. In this respect he is
descended directly from Liszt, whose orchestra he adopted and from
whom he borrowed many an old effect. His inspiration is sometimes
exquisite; the inexhaustible transformation of his themes is always
most intelligent or interesting. As all the other Russians, he sins
in the development of ideas through the lack of cohesion, of sustained
enchainment, and especially through the lack of true polyphony. The
influence of Berlioz and of Liszt is not less striking in his manner
of composition. Sadko comes from Liszt's Ce qu'on entend sur la
montagne, Antar and Scheherazade at the same time from Harold and the
Faust symphony. The Oriental monody seems to throw a spell over
Rimsky-Korsakoff which spreads over all his works a sort of 'local
colour,' underlined here by the chosen subjects. In Scheherazade, it
must be said, the benzoin of Arabia sends forth here and there the
sickening empyreuma of the pastilles of the harem. In the second and
the third movements of Antar the composer has approached nearest true
musical superiority. The descriptive, almost dramatic, intention is
realised there with an unusual sureness, and, if the brand of Liszt
remains ineffaceable, the ease of construction, the breadth and the
co-ordinated progressions of combinations mark a mastery and an
originality that are rarely found among the composers of the far
North, and that no one has ever possessed among the 'five.'
* * * * *
"Chopin's well-known saying in regard to Liszt, when he heard that the
latter was going to write a notice of his concert, tells more," says
Professor Niecks, "than whole volumes. These are the words: 'Il me
donnera un petit royaume dans son empire,' which were said to Ernest
Legouve by Chopin. Now here is another side-light on Chopin and his
opinion of the great virtuoso. He is referring to Liszt's notice of some
concert, apparently at Cologne. He is amused at the 'fifteen hundred men
counted, at the president of the Phil [harmonic] and his carriage,
etc.,' and he feels sure that Liszt will 'some day be a deputy, or king
of Abyssinia, or of the Congo; his melodies (themes), however, will rest
alongside the two volumes of German poetry'--two volumes which did not
seem destined, apparently, to achieve immortality."