Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844 - 1908), Procession of the Nobles, Cortège from \"Mlada Suite\" (1903)
Performed by Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra, conductor Anothony Bramall (1995)
The opera Mlada was written in 1889 and 1890 and first staged in St. Petersburg on 1st November 1892. The libretto was extended and developed by Rimsky-Korsakov from an earlier collaborative composition, an opera-ballet, tackled together with Borodin, Mussorgsky, Cui and Minkus in 1872. Here again the composer returns to ancient pagan Russian legend in a work of some extravagance.
Mlada herself, a dream-figure, is betrothed to Yaromir, but at her wedding is murdered through a poisoned ring, given her by Voyslava, daughter of a prince who wishes to bring about Yaromir's downfall, a devotee of the infernal goddess Morena. The intervention of the spectral Mlada prevents the embraces of Yaromir and Voyslava, who is eventually killed by the man she had hoped to deceive and claimed by the goddess Morena. The suite from Mlada includes a Russian dance, Redowa, a Lithuanian dance, an exotic Indian dance, part of the dream scene in which the truth is revealed to Yaromir, and a final processional.