In the Steppes of Central Asia

The Medical College of Wisconsin Orchestra
Spring 2023 Concert
In the Steppes of Central Asia
By Alexander Borodin
Conducted by: Alexander Mandl, DMA
When Alexander II of Russia held his silver jubilee in 1880, he commissioned Alexander Borodin (1833-1887) to compose a symphonic poem. It was intended to be the soundtrack to a tableau vivant - a slightly curious, and now largely forgotten art form in which actors pose, motionless, in a set, often lit to resemble a painting. Quite how they would have kept still for the full seven or eight minutes of Borodin’s music, we will never know, as the “production” was called off after an assassination attempt. Rimsky-Korsakov then presented the work with his Russian Opera Orchestra for the 1880 season, and it has since become a concert favorite. The music is beautifully comprehensible: the listener can easily hear the Russian and central Asian melodies, which briefly meet, working perfectly over each other before the Asian music disappears into the distance, and the Russian theme is left alone.