During the 1906 exhibition of Russian Art in Paris, impresario Sergei Diaghilev was acquainted with the Parisian music publisher Gabriel Astruc, who encouraged him to organize a series of concerts with music by Russian composers. On May 16th, 1907 the first concert with works by Rimsky-Korsakov, Glinka and Tchaikovsky launched the series of 5 concerts. After the performance of the bass Chaliapin with Arias from Borodin's Prince Igor, the audience applauded so long that the conductor got angry and walked away. "It was a scandal" wrote a highly pleased Diaghilev to the composer Rimsky-Korsakov. In the series, the complete programs of which are included in the present program, Rimsky-Korsakov conducted the suite from his Nochʹ pered Rozhdestvom and the Prelude to Act 1 and two songs form Snegurochka (with Mme Zbroueff), Rachmaninoff played his Piano Concerto no. 2 and conducted his Vesna (with Chaliapin) and Glazunov conducted his Iz srednikh vekov (From the Middle Ages). The other works, mostly conducted by Arthur Nikisch and Camille Chevillard, were by Glinka, Mussorgsky, Borodin, Taneyev, Lyadov, Scriabin, and Cui. To mark these historic concerts, the present memorial book was published on heavy glossy paper with portraits and biographies of the composers, facsimiles of scores, set and costume illustrations. The cover is a woodcut designed by Evgenii Lansere showing buildings in an old Russian style, previously used as the title page of the ‘Mir Iskusstva’ (World of Art) magazine 1900, no. 4.  References: Richard Buckle, Diaghilev, Londen 1979, part 3; Nijmegen 2004, p. 30.