rimsky-korsakov now worked about two or three hours a day for the navy. he spent the rest of the time composing or visiting friends. he met more composers, including borodin and dargomïzhsky, and he composed songs and piano music, although he was not good enough to play the piano to audiences. however, his friends realized that he was very good at writing for orchestras and he was asked to orchestrate several pieces. dargomïzhsky, who was dying, had not yet orchestrated his opera "the stone guest", so he asked rimsky-korsakov to do it.