Klaus Döring's Classical Music/Klaus Döring's Klassische Musik

  by   Maureen Buja   On Fridays, the publisher Mitrofan Petrovich Belaieff had his musical gatherings, bringing together the cream of the St Petersburg composers. The earlier group, who came together around  Mily Balakirev , known as the Mighty Handful, or just The Five (Balakirev,  Alexander Borodin ,  César Cui ,  Modest Mussorgsky , and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov), had done their best to embody Russian national music, but fell apart after the early death of Mussorgsky. The timber merchant Belaieff stepped forward next. Portrait of Alexander Glazunov Belaieff, with the family fortune in the timber industry behind him, was also a musician. He played the viola and, through Anatoly Lyadov, was introduced to Alexander Glazunov. In the early 1880s, Belaieff held Friday musical meetings for string quartet concerts at his house. Initially, they were playing through the quartets of  Haydn ,  Mozart , and  Beethoven  in chronological or...