I am, I believe, justified in imagining that because your membership must have greatly altered since the day when Mrs. Rosa Newmarch came amongst you as the prophetess of Russian music, and gave that wonderfully illuminating series of lectures on the rise of the Nationalist opera, and because very little connected information has since been forthcoming in book form (in the English tongue at least), it will not come amiss if, before proceeding to discuss and appraise Moussorgsky, I give you some slight sketch of the events which led to the formation of the Koutchka, as the little circle of five musicians—Balakireff, Cui, Borodin, Moussorgsky, and Rimsky-Korsakoff—was called, and to the formulation of their principles and aims.