Mily Balakirev (1837–1910) wrote “Islamey. Fantaisie orientale”, Op. 18, in August and September 1869. He dedicated it to Nikolai Rubinstein, who gave the first performance in Moscow in December 1869. In Klavissimo, where it is listed as “Islamej op. 18”, the piece has 344 bars. The time signature changes three times: from 12/16 to 6/8, back to 12/16 and finally to 2/4.
Level 6, as an optional piece
Islamey sits at level 6, the top level of the ladder. The right hand plays more than 4,600 notes, the left more than 3,300. It is an optional piece: you do not need to master it for level 6 to count as complete.
What you can do with it in Klavissimo
- Piece journey: “Discover this piece” takes you through it in three stations, in about five minutes. They cover loud and soft in the first eight bars, the calm song of the Andantino from bar 92 and the Presto furioso from bar 282. In the last two stations, “Play this passage” sets up four bars for the right hand at a slow tempo.
- Excerpt and hand: Under “Adjust ▾” you narrow down the bars and choose “Both hands”, “Right” or “Left”. With “Play other hand quietly” the other hand sounds softly alongside, without being scored.
- Tempo: Klavissimo plays the piece in six tempo sections, from ♩ = 99 in the Andantino to ♩ = 152 in the Presto furioso. The “♩ =” field is the base tempo. Slow it down and every section slows down in proportion.
- Note by note: this mode waits at every note for your key press, so you can learn a dense passage without the clock first.
Engraved from the print
The score is Klavissimo's own new engraving. It follows the revised version published in Balakirev's lifetime by D. Rahter in Leipzig (plate 2897). Its title page reads “nouvelle édition revue et corrigée par l'auteur”: Balakirev revised it himself. The opening is marked “Allegro agitato.” with dotted quaver = 168, which Klavissimo shows as ♩ = 126.
Only the main text is engraved. The ossia passages, the printed alternatives, are left out. Markings such as rit. or accel. appear in the score, but playback and scoring do not carry them out.