Mili Alexeyevich Balakirev was born at Nizhny-Novgorod in January 1837, the son of a minor government official. His early piano lessons were with his mother, supplemented by a summer visit to Moscow in 1847, when he had some lessons from Alexander Dubuque, a pupil of John Field. It was later in his schooling that he was introduced, through his teacher, to Alexander Ulibishev, a well-to-do landowner, patron of music and writer of books on Mozart and Beethoven. It was through Ulibishev that he was to receive every encouragement, with access to music and opportunities to hear performances at his house, however inadequate these may sometimes have been.
Entry to the musical world of St. Petersburg was effected when Ulibishev took Balakirev there in 1855, introducing him to Glinka, the great pioneer of Russian music, and allowing him the opportunity to give public concerts, with considerable success. Nevertheless Balakirev found difficulty in supporting himself, although the death of Ulibishev in 1858 brought him a legacy of 1000 roubles, two violins and his patron's music library.
Balakirev's subsequent career brought him, initially, friendship with Cui, Mussorgsky, Rimsky-Korsakov and Borodin, his meeting with the last-named in late 1862, nine months after the foundation of the Free School of Music that was to occupy his attention for the next ten years. The financial failure of the Free School concerts brought about his withdrawal from music altogether, his eventual resignation from the directorship of the School in 1874 leading to the succession of Rimsky-Korsakov, whom he was to replace in 1881.
From 1872, Balakirev worked for the Warsaw Railway, his interests becoming increasingly devoted to religion. His gradual return to musical life began in 1876, recognised in 1883 by his appointment as Director of Music to the Imperial Chapel, a position he relinquished in 1894. A pension now allowed him to devote his time for the remaining years of his life to composition, but by the time of his death in 1910 his music had been largely forgotten, so that a projected concert of his works planned for 1909 was abandoned for lack of support.
In character Balakirev was a difficult man. His influence had, at one time, been very great in his own circle, but his friends and associates were to tire of the self-assertive dominance he exercised over them. At the same time he had shown occasional signs of mental instability, even as early as 1859, when Dmitry Stasov nursed him back to health, and again in the 1870s, when he was indebted to the help given him by Lyudmila Shestakova, Glinka's sister. He was outspoken, tactless and completely devoted to the cause of Russian music as he saw it, intolerant of any divergence of opinion. For Belyayev, whose encouragement and practical assistance was of such service to the young composers of the last quarter of the century, he developed a strong aversion, regarding him as a pernicious influence. Rimsky-Korsakov, who had dared to attend Belyayev's Friday evenings, instead of Balakirev's musical Tuesdays, was accused of selling himself for thirty pieces of silver to Satan, who, disastrously for Russian music, appeared in the form of M.P. Belyayev.
At the same time Balakirev was responsible for many disinterested acts of kindness, not least in his work for the Free School of Music. His devotion to the furtherance of Russian music was unquestioned: the means by which he chose to carry out his mission sometimes proved offensive, but his example and inspiration was largely responsible for the shape Russian music was to take.
