Rimsky-Korsakov wrote his 'Fantasia on Serbian Themes' (also known as the 'Serbian Fantasy') in 1867. Mily Balakirev conducted the first performance of this piece in May of that year. The 'Fantasy' was actually Balakirev's idea for the young Rimsky-Korsakov to compose. Rimsky-Korsakov confessed in his autobiography that it was not any feeling of nationalism or pan-Slavism that prompted him to write the 'Fantasy', but the beauty of the themes themselves.