Russian orchestral music (notably Tschaïkovsky’s Pathetic Symphony, and other of his works) has, chiefly by the efforts of Mr. Henry J. Wood and the Queen’s Hall Orchestra, become familiar amongst us, and by the use of strong colour and highly emotional effects, such music has no doubt obtained much attention, but it is very doubtful if we yet know the best about this Russian school, for an examination of the chamber music of the composers named above, reveals a surprising number of works, written with true feeling and the highest technical skill. Some of these shall be referred to in detail, but it may be observed that many of these composers are manifestly influenced by, and have gathered up into classical form (as did Haydn, and, to name a modern instance, Grieg), the folk music of the common people. There seems to be an immense wealth of this kind of musical material to be found in Russia, often couched in quaint, irregular rhythms, but full of a weird charm, even though strange to Western ears. That such material should appeal strongly to the musicians of a race so powerfully affected by their emotions as are the Sclavs is what might be expected, and as the supply is said to be practically inexhaustible and often of considerable artistic beauty, the further developments in this direction will be watched with keen interest. [Illustration: IPPOLITOFF-IVANOFF.] [Illustration: ARENSKY.] [Sidenote: =Quartett by Ippolitoff-Ivanoff=] Our first example is a String Quartett in A minor, op. 13, by Ippolitoff-Ivanoff (Jurgenson, Moscow). It has been said that the Sclav temperament is one of “fiery exaltation on a basis of languid melancholy.” Ivanoff’s quartett, in a measure, illustrates this, for it opens with a sorrowful passage of much intensity, which, in its feeling (not the notes), reminds one of the _Tristan_ Prelude of Wagner. The entry of the two violins on one note, and the poignant effect which immediately results as they separate a semitone, is a marked and original feature of the whole work, and may indeed be regarded as its “motto.” It reappears at the end of the first allegro, and again, in fuller form with fine effect, just before the coda of the finale. The commencement of Tschaïkovsky’s String Quartett in F, op. 22, has a certain kinship to this, but the treatment and the effect are quite different. The same may be said as to the beginning of his Quartett op. 30 in E♭ minor. [Music: IPPOLITOFF-IVANOFF, OP. 13.] After some thirty bars of this introduction the first movement proper, an allegro, begins with the following theme, in which it must be admitted there is a certain excess of the semiquaver movement, used in a fragmentary manner as an accompaniment to the leading ideas:— [Music: IPPOLITOFF-IVANOFF, OP. 13.]