# Modest Mussorgsky



## Aramis

I was pretty suprised by founding no thread about him (just one about Pictures of Exhibition). I don't know why but I feel some kind of sympathy for this man. He's life seems to be a sad one. He was not well educated and that's another thing about him that makes his music attractive to me. 

First thing I heard was "Night on the Bare Mountain" and it's still one of my favourites (or even the favorite one) symphonic poems.


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## Sid James

I only know three of his works - _Pictures at an Exhibition _(I have the original piano version), _Night on the Bare Mountain _(not sure which version) and _Largamente_ for piano. They are all superb, and I'd like to hear more, eg. his great operas _Boris Godunov _and _Khovanschina_. Unfortunately, he couldn't kick his alcohol addiction, and I assume he died of complications related to this problem. He was certainly an idiosyncratic genius, much like say Janacek, he didn't fit into any category.

I wonder what version of _Pictures_ people like the best. I like the original piano version, how he stretches the sonorities of the piano. I haven't heard anything like this, other than Beethoven's _Hammerklavier Sonata_. No wonder it was orchestrated by Ravel (I'm surprised that Rimsky Korsakov didn't get around to doing this himself). His music seems to make a deep impression on me, it lingers long after I've heard it. A great composer in many ways.


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## Tapkaara

I do love Mussorgsky. I'm not familiar with Boris Gudonov, but I'm not much of an opera guy anyway.

Pictures is an al time great, in either the orginal piano version or the orchestral version. Ravel's orchestration is masterful, though the version by Vlad Ashkenazy is also worthy of much merit.

Night on Bald Mountain is a superb tone poem. Most are familiar with the Rimsky-Korsakov version, but Modest's original version is perhaps better. Strange orchestration and certainly rougher...and it even has moment of outright Russian folk song.

It's too bad he was such a drunk that he failed to personally realize most of his most famous works. Was it Korsakov who called him "a genius without any talent?"


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## Dazed

hi, I'm new at this forum and I'd like to know if anyone can tell any blog or website to get mussorgsky music (piano mostly). The only thing I could get is Pictures...

See you.


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## nickgray

To my shame I still haven't heard anything by him besides the famous "Pictures" and Night on the Bald Mountain. I'd really like to hear Boris Godunov and Khovanschina, gotta bring myself to find a proper interpretation and performance and then finally listen to them... someday.


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## emiellucifuge

You guys seriously!,...

Boris Godunov is a masterpiece, if youre not in a position to watch the entire thing on a good quality DVD than go on youtube and watch the bolshoi theater performance


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## Zeniyama

I had a CD of Claudio Abbado conducting some of Mussorgsky's lesser known orchestral and choral compositions, including the original version of Night on Bald Mountain. Unfortunately, this CD was among the many that my sister's boyfriend took from me and pawned, so I'm going to have to purchase it again, but it is an excellent recording. Very good playing, and it gives a great look into Mussorgsky's style.


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## StlukesguildOhio

I certainly love _Pictures at an Exhibition_ which I will always remember from a marvelous performance by the Cleveland Orchestra, as well as Night on Bald Mountain... but I always had difficulty imagining him as a truly major composer... until I had the opportunity to hear his songs performed by Galina Vishnevskaya (with her husband, Rostropovich) and _Boris Gudunov_. I am more than a little familiar with opera... but this one was a real eye-opener.


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## shsherm

I am listening to a performance of Khovanschina while I am entering this post. KUSC in LA has a Sunday night opera broadcast every week. The piano version of "Pictures" is one of the best works for the instrument.


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## tahnak

nickgray said:


> To my shame I still haven't heard anything by him besides the famous "Pictures" and Night on the Bald Mountain. I'd really like to hear Boris Godunov and Khovanschina, gotta bring myself to find a proper interpretation and performance and then finally listen to them... someday.


I haven't laid my hands on Khovanschina but Rostropovich's reading of 'Boris' with the national is excellent.


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## tahnak

StlukesguildOhio said:


> I certainly love _Pictures at an Exhibition_ which I will always remember from a marvelous performance by the Cleveland Orchestra, as well as Night on Bald Mountain... but I always had difficulty imagining him as a truly major composer... until I had the opportunity to hear his songs performed by Galina Vishnevskaya (with her husband, Rostropovich) and _Boris Gudunov_. I am more than a little familiar with opera... but this one was a real eye-opener.


Please note that any appreciation of 'Pictures' rebounds on the extra ordinary orchestrating talent of Maurice Ravel
and that of Night on the Bald Mountain to Rimsky Korsakov.


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## StlukesguildOhio

Certainly... but I also own a copy of the solo piano version (Alfred Brendel).


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## Sid James

I think his works are still great, independently of the other composers' orchestrations...


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## Aramis

And I think that orchestrated version is overrated.


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## nickgray

Aramis said:


> And I think that orchestrated version is overrated.


Yes!! I thought I was alone on this one


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## StlukesguildOhio

Is it possible to overrated Ravel as an orchestrator?


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## Sid James

I really like how Mussorgsky really pushes the piano to the limit in the _Pictures at an Exhibition_. You don't get that from the orchestrated versions...


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## StlukesguildOhio

Certainly... but then I also love the tonal colors that Ravel brings to the score... and you don't get that with the piano version. The best, it would seem, would be to have both.


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## bdelykleon

The piano version of the Pictures sound to me much more daring and interesting in its new sounds for the instrument than the brilliant but much more "civilized" orchestration by Ravel.


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## Mirror Image

I've never been a big Mussorgsky fan. "Pictures At An Exhibition (orchestration by Ravel)" is a pretty good piece. "A Night On Bald Mountain" is also pretty good, but I'm just not big into his style much give me Mysakovsky, Shostakovich, Borodin, or Prokofiev anyday.


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## Sid James

bdelykleon said:


> The piano version of the Pictures sound to me much more daring and interesting in its new sounds for the instrument than the brilliant but much more "civilized" orchestration by Ravel.


I agree, the Ravel orchestration sounds more like Ravel than Mussorgsky, although he did a good job. I've read that the Stokowski orchestration is closer to Mussorgsky's style, but I haven't heard it to judge for myself. Anyway, I think that Mussorgsky's approach to piano technique was nothing short of revolutionary in that work, he was decades ahead of his time. So I'm a big fan of the piano version, as you might guess.


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## bdelykleon

But Boris Godunov is the real gem of mussorgsky, one of the strongest and most impressives pieces of music of it is time.


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## ConcertVienna

*Orchestrated version of Pictures...*

may be you will change your mind if you give it chance with a superb performance directed by Esa-Pekka Salonen available at youtube.


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## World Violist

And now for something completely different: Me posting about liking Mussorgsky.



ConcertVienna said:


> may be you will change your mind if you give it chance with a superb performance directed by Esa-Pekka Salonen available at youtube.


CV's right... that performance is threatening to get me addicted to Mussorgsky. It's simply incredible.

I need to hear Boris Godunov.


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## myaskovsky2002

*I'm not a fan*

of Mussorgsky...His orchestrations sucks, he had never completed an opera...He always required help from his friends. He had good ideas though but operas like _the marriage _are kind of not-for-me.

Martin


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## Il_Penseroso

*Moussorgsky*

I think *Boris Godunov* is the greatest opera ever written.I love it both musically and dramatically more than any other opera.

Although I prefer *Rimsky Korsakov's 1906 version* but I've heard also other different versions of the work, one even in English translated by John Gutman with the score rewriting by Karol Rathaus and conducted by *Dimitri Mitropoulos* for The Metropolitan Opera House in late 50s. It is an abridged but good version that contains the Vasily Blazhenny Cathedral Scene instead of the Kromy Forest Scene.

And The Best Boris I think was *Boris Christoff* (a recording in 1952 has released by Naxos Great Opera Recordings in a 3 CDs Box)

Moussorgsky's Songs are also very superb. The most famous is *Song of the Flea* that is recorded four times by the great *Chaliapin*.


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## elgar's ghost

In addition to PAAE, NOBM and BG I especially like his three principle song cycles. I'm glad he at least managed to produce as many songs as he did - it helped to compensate for the various projects he left unfinished or abandoned. Sometime in the future I would like to get a recording of all the songs plus Khovanshchina - then I'm pretty much done.


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## Romantic Geek

Pictures is an incredible piece. I think the piano version and Ravel's orchestrated version have their own pros and cons. The piano version is just simply hard. I feel like few pianists are able to successfully go through the gauntlet. The Great Gate of Kiev is just one killer way to top off that piece...and when you're reaching towards minute 30, Mussorgsky definitely doesn't make it easy for the pianist.

One thing that I think Ravel did an amazing job is with the movement Catacombs. It's very haunting and I would imagine it was what Mussorgsky was imagining during it. I think it comes a little short in the piano version.

I know of a little bit of Boris Godunov, but I need to see the whole thing. 

Mussorgsky is a special composer, because he really has a loose sense of tonality in a time period when that was reigning supreme. 

Many people probably haven't heard a lot of his works - but you have to remember, he simply didn't write a lot either.


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## toucan

There is a hauting, impressionist style of choral composing, that found its inception in the third of Debussy's *Nocturnes* and neat development in works as diverse as Szymanowski's Third Symphony and his *Stabat Mater*, in Andre Caplet's Sextet for vocal and instrumental chords, and in Bela Bartok's *Cantata Profane*.

I have often wondered if there were antecedants to this type of choral sound.

I believe I may have found one, and that is the _Chorus of Priestesses_ in Mussorgsky's *Salammbo* (well performed by Abbado in a CD that I found in a pawn shop, lol)

Such loveliness!

With great guys like Debussy, Szymanowski, Caplet and Bartok at the ready to finish what he started, no wonder Mussorgsky didn't always bother to complete his works. He didn't need to.


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## World Violist

toucan said:


> There is a hauting, impressionist style of choral composing, that found its inception in the third of Debussy's *Nocturnes* and neat development in works as diverse as Szymanowski's Third Symphony and his *Stabat Mater*, in Andre Caplet's Sextet for vocal and instrumental chords, and in Bela Bartok's *Cantata Profane*.
> 
> I have often wondered if there were antecedants to this type of choral sound.
> 
> I believe I may have found one, and that is the _Chorus of Priestesses_ in Mussorgsky's *Salammbo* (well performed by Abbado in a CD that I found in a pawn shop, lol)
> 
> Such loveliness!
> 
> With great guys like Debussy, Szymanowski, Caplet and Bartok at the ready to finish what he started, no wonder Mussorgsky didn't always bother to complete his works. He didn't need to.


Have you heard Act 3 of Boris Godunov? It isn't a choral sound, but it's definitely very impressionistic and very beautiful, and reminds me very much of that choral sound.


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## toucan

Well, yes, I'd say _By the Sky-blue waters of the Vistula, under a shady willow_ and _My Turtledoves!_, especially fit the bill!


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## wingracer

I'm a fan of all the Russian nationalists, especially Borodin and Mussorgsky. Yeah I've heard all the arguments about Korsakov or others having to finish their work but you know what? I THANK him from the very depths of my soul for helping to bring us such wonderful music.

As for Pictures, I like both. If I had to choose just one, I would probably take the original solo piano but fortunately I do not have to make such a choice as I love Ravel's orchestration as well.


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## Sebastien Melmoth

Late here, but did no one hear the MET's *Boris Godunov* live broadcast yesterday with René Pape?

It was very good.


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## Edward Elgar

Which is better, The Five or Les Six? 

My vote is for The Five and that's mainly because of Mussorgsky. 

Honegger is the only member of Les Six that could challenge him.


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## toucan

In boxing? Or chess?


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## Edward Elgar

toucan said:


> In boxing? Or chess?


Karate


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## nickgray

Edward Elgar said:


> Which is better, The Five or Les Six?


Milhaud made almost half a thousand musical compositions. Mussorgsky... well, no need to comment, eh?


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## World Violist

Edward Elgar said:


> Karate


Yes, old Modest was a master of the Drunken Person form.


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## wingracer

nickgray said:


> Milhaud made almost half a thousand musical compositions. Mussorgsky... well, no need to comment, eh?


One true masterpiece beats a thousand mediocre works any day. But since I'm not real familiar with Milhaud, I probably should not comment.


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## Il_Penseroso

Could anyone here help me please ? I want Mephistopheles' song of the flea words in russian , either in cyrillic alphabet or latin transcribed.


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## Il_Penseroso

Il_Penseroso said:


> Could anyone here help me please ? I want Mephistopheles' song of the flea words in russian , either in cyrillic alphabet or latin transcribed.


Found it myself , thanks ! 
and in addition I should have written "transliterated" instad of "transcribed".


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## Nix

I've been listening to _Songs and Dances of Death_ after only hearing _Pictures_ and _Bald Mountain_. A really good song cycle and highly recommend it. My respect for Mussorgsky has risen quickly these past couple of days, and looking forward to discovering more works!


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## Flamme

*Mussorgsky*

I adore this guys subtle style especially in the Pictures...So noble and sweet i melt...
Also a bit of Bartok can come in handy...


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## Wandering

I went back aways, I couldn't find the Mussorgsky thread, he must of been neglected for a while, thanks for starting him another thread, two thumbs way up!


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## Art Rock

Apart from the usual suspects (Pictures, Boris Godunov, Night on a bare mountain), his songs are really excellent.


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## ArcticFox

I've only heard Night On Bald Mountain and pieces of some of his other works but I already really like him and hope to explore more of his music soon.


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## sharik

Boris Godunov, the movie -


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## sharik

Boris Godunov live performance -


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## hpowders

With halloween fast approaching, Night on Bare Mountain is definitely in play.


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## GioCar

sharik said:


> Boris Godunov live performance -


In the first video I can read only St. Petersburg but it's not the Mariinsky. Which theatre is it?
Thanks


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## sharik

GioCar said:


> In the first video I can read only St. Petersburg but it's not the Mariinsky. Which theatre is it?
> Thanks


http://www.opera-centre.ru/ performed Boris Godunov in St.Petersbourgh.


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## Meyerbeer Smith

This is what opera is for:


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## Pat Fairlea

Sid James said:


> I agree, the Ravel orchestration sounds more like Ravel than Mussorgsky, although he did ak good job. I've read that the Stokowski orchestration is closer to Mussorgsky's style, but I haven't heard it to judge for myself. Anyway, I think that Mussorgsky's approach to piano technique was nothing short of revolutionary in that work, he was decades ahead of his time. So I'm a big fan of the piano version, as you might guess.


Yes, absolutely. Ravel did a fair job of the orchestration of Pictures, but it is more Ravel than Mussorgsky, and far from Ravel' s exciting best. The piano version of Pictures is remarkably innovative, and wonderfully economical as Mussorgsky achieves fascinating tonal effects with the minimum of notes. I'm no operaphile (so sue me) so will pass over Boris G, though Dawn on the Moscow River, from Kovanshchina, is wonderful. Complex, tragic, brilliant man, sadly under-appreciated.


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## SixFootScowl

myaskovsky2002 said:


> of Mussorgsky...His orchestrations sucks, *he had never completed an opera*...He always required help from his friends. He had good ideas though but operas like _the marriage _are kind of not-for-me.
> 
> Martin


Mussorgsky's friends just didn't understand his music and so tried to "fix" what didn't need fixing. And he did complete one opera which is as much as Beethoven completed for opera.


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## Necronomicon

As cliche` as it is, Mussorgsky's night on bald mountain via fantasia was probably the first time a piece of classical' music really struck and stayed with me as a child. Still enjoy it just as much, if not more today.


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## SixFootScowl

So, can anyone list, what of all Mussorgsky's major works are ones he actually finished before he died and are not finished by someone else?


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## violadude

Florestan said:


> So, can anyone list, what of all Mussorgsky's major works are ones he actually finished before he died and are not finished by someone else?


Major Works by Mussorgsky basically include:

Boris Godunov
Pictures at an Exhibition
Night on Bald Mountain
Songs and Dances of Death
Khovanshchina
Without Sun
The Nursery

Of those, only Khovanshchina is unfinished. Both Boris Godunov and Night on Bald Mountain were edited by Rimsky-Korsokov to make them more acceptable to the public at the time.


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## znapschatz

violadude said:


> Major Works by Mussorgsky basically include:
> 
> Boris Godunov
> Pictures at an Exhibition
> Night on Bald Mountain
> Songs and Dances of Death
> Khovanshchina
> Without Sun
> The Nursery
> 
> Of those, only Khovanshchina is unfinished. Both Boris Godunov and Night on Bald Mountain were edited by Rimsky-Korsokov to make them more acceptable to the public at the time.


I love *Boris Godunov*, mostly in its original Mussorgsky orchestration, but Shostakovich and Rimsky Korsakov acceptable, and *Khovanschina* in the forms it can be found (not so much the Stravinsky, but oh, well.) Those are my favorite operas of them all, and I _love_ opera. I take both personally, wrap them around me. When experiencing either, I find myself transported to time and place. Okay, maybe delusional, but I feel the cold, smell the peasantry, sense the pervasive religious fervor, the dread and anxiety, everything. And I sympathize with the characters, even the nasty ones. About once every other year, more or less, I immerse myself in one or the other for a month or so. They are both contenders for the last music I want to hear.


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## TxllxT




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## TxllxT




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## TxllxT

Lenfilm 'Mussorgsky' (with English subtitles)






Boris Godunov






with English subtitles






French subtitles






with René Pape 2016


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## TxllxT

English subtitles + Reizen


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## TxllxT

Mussorgsky's song cycle 'children' for children











Songs and Dances of Death (Mussorgsky) .Galina Vishnevskaya.






Hvorostovsky - Songs and Dances of Death - Commander


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## TxllxT

1956






1958






1968


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## Pugg

Remembering Mr. Modest Mussorgsky birthday.


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## Rogerx

*Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky Born 21 March 1839 – 28 March [O.S. 16 March] 1881)*






Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition [Ravel's orchestration] (Abbado, London Symphony Orchestra)


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## Joachim Raff

Already a Thread for this composer Modest Mussorgsky


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## Rogerx

Joachim Raff said:


> Already a Thread for this composer Modest Mussorgsky


I know, more the one, it's for his birthday reminder.


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