``Rimsky-Korsakov was truly a man of many parts. Apart from his work as a prolific composer of sixteen operas, and a substantial body of compositions in many other genres, he was also active as a teacher, music inspector, conductor, editor, writer, as well as leading a full and busy life within the bosom of his family.''
--George R. Seaman.

``I worked with him in this way. He would give me some pages of the piano score of a new opera he had just finished(Pan Voyevoda), which I was to orchestrate. When I had orchestrated a section, he would show me his own instrumentation of the same passage. I had to compare them, and then he would ask me to explain why he had done it differently. Whenever I was unable to do so, it was he who explained.''
--Igor Stravinsky.
On the occasion of Rimsky-Korsakov's death, Stravinsky composed a "Funeral Dirge", and this was performed in St. Petersburg at the first Belaiev concert of the autumn season, which was entirely dedicated to Rimsky's memory. Unfortunately the score of this work was lost in the Russian Revolution; but if Stravinsky's memory could be trusted, it was the best of his works before "The Firebird".

``...my lack of respect for Rimsky-Korsakov teaching did no prevent me from admiring his music; I attended the dress rehearsal and three successive performances of his Kitezh which had its premiere in the spring of 1907, and applauded until my hands ached.''
--Sergei Prokofiev.