The Five (composers)
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The Five, also known as the Mighty Handful or The Mighty Five, were five prominent 19th-century Russian composers who worked together to create a distinct national style of classical music: Mily Balak
Vladimir Stasov (1824–1906)
Mighty Handful
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
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Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was a Russian composer of the Romantic period. He was the first Russian composer whose music made a lasting impression internationally. Tchaikovsky wrote some of the most popu
The Five (composers)
…to hold down a full-time job in the State Forestry Department. In contrast to the élite status and court connections of Conservatory composers such as Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, The Five were mainly from the minor gentry of the provinces. To some degree their esprit de corps depended on the myth, which they themselves created…
Tchaikovsky, c. 1888
Tchaikovsky's birthplace in 1840 in Votkinsk, Russia, now a museum
The Tchaikovsky family in 1848. Left to right: Pyotr, Alexandra Andreyevna (mother), Alexandra (sister), Zinaida, Nikolai, Ippolit, Ilya Petrovich (father)
Tchaikovsky as a student at the St. Petersburg Conservatory in 1863