Great Composers in Words and Music: Mussorgsky
Album by Mussorgsky
Released September 2023
Tracklist
- 1Great Composers in Words and Music: IntroductionNicholas Boulton
- 2Pictures at an Exhibition: IV. Bydlo (excerpt)Dénes Várjon
- 3Great Composers in Words and Music: Recalling his time spent in Berlin in the 1830s, the Russian literary critic Pavel Annenkov declared: "Every Russian newcomer was wryly asked whether he wished to stay in Berlin and…"Nicholas Boulton
- 4Kamarinskaya (excerpt)Symfonický orchester Slovenského rozhlasu, Anthony Bramall
- 5Great Composers in Words and Music: If Glinka was the fountainhead of Russian music, his offspring - in a musical sense - included Mily Balakirev, César Cui, Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov, Alexander Borodin and Modest Mussorgsky…Nicholas Boulton
- 6Intermezzo in modo classico (1867 version for piano) (excerpt)Giacomo Scinardo
- 7Great Composers in Words and Music: Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky was born on 21 March 1839 into a wealthy, land-owning family in the provincial town of Karevo, situated in the Pskov district in the north-west of Russia…Nicholas Boulton
- 8Porte-enseigne Polka (Ensign-Polka) (excerpt)Giacomo Scinardo
- 9Great Composers in Words and Music: After being commissioned an officer in the elite Preobrazhensky Regiment of the Imperial Guards, Mussorgsky met a group of musicians with whom he would be forever associated: "The Five"…Nicholas Boulton
- 10Scherzo in C-sharp minor (excerpt)Giacomo Scinardo
- 11Great Composers in Words and Music: Another personal crisis appears to have occurred a couple of years later, in the summer of 1860, while Mussorgsky was staying at the rural estate of the Shilovskys, a St. Petersburg couple…Nicholas Boulton
- 12Pictures at an Exhibition: VIII. Catacombae (Sepulcrum romanum) (excerpt)Dénes Várjon
- 13Great Composers in Words and Music: Another extract from Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition, this a movement titled Catacombs…Nicholas Boulton
- 14Seminarist (The Seminarist) (excerpt)Mikhail Svetlov, Pavlina Dokovska
- 15Great Composers in Words and Music: The following year, 1867, Mussorgsky finished an orchestral project that he seems to have had in mind for several years. This was the now-popular tone-poem Night on Bald Mountain, a work that…Nicholas Boulton
- 16St. John's Night on Bald Mountain, "A Night on the Bare Mountain" (original version) (excerpt)Gürzenich‐Orchester Köln, Дмитрий Китаенко
- 17Great Composers in Words and Music: That Mussorgsky never heard his tone-poem in performance is perhaps not surprising, given the work's immediate reception…Nicholas Boulton
- 18Zhenit'ba (The Marriage), Act I, Scene 1: Vot tak nachnyosh etak (Here is how you start)Даниил Демьянов, Большой симфонический оркестр имени П. И. Чайковского, Алексей Ковалёв
- 19Great Composers in Words and Music: Despite his bold proclamation of his compositional intentions in Marriage, Mussorgsky would go on to call the opera a mere preparatory exercise: "an experiment in dramatic music in prose"…Nicholas Boulton
- 20Boris Godunov, Prologue, Scene 1: Introduction (1869 version) (excerpt)Sofia National Opera Orchestra, Konstantin Chudovsky
- 21Great Composers in Words and Music: A final passage from Boris Godunov furnishes another example of a folk-inspired musical style…Nicholas Boulton
- 22Boris Godunov, Act IV, Scene 1: Lejtes', lejtes', slëzy gor'ki (Flow, bitter tears) (1869 version)Hrisimir Damyanov, Sofia National Opera Orchestra, Konstantin Chudovsky
- 23Great Composers in Words and Music: Here at the end of the opera, Mussorgsky paints a sorrowful picture…Nicholas Boulton
- 24Khovanshchina, Act I: Introduction (excerpt)Sofia National Opera Orchestra, Atanas Margaritov
- 25Great Composers in Words and Music: At the time Mussorgsky was working on Khovanshchina, Boris finally premiered at the Mariinsky…Nicholas Boulton
- 26Pictures at an Exhibition: PromenadeDénes Várjon
- 27Great Composers in Words and Music: In between the seemingly happenstance occurrences of Mussorgsky's Promenade theme are movements that function as personal reminiscences: not the kind of dispassionate musical observations that…Nicholas Boulton
- 28Pictures at an Exhibition: II. Old Castle (excerpt)Dénes Várjon
- 29Great Composers in Words and Music: Yet, as with Boris Godunov, Pictures at an Exhibition features contrasting styles…Nicholas Boulton
- 30Pictures at an Exhibition: V. Ballet of the Chickens in their ShellsDénes Várjon
- 31Great Composers in Words and Music: 1874 was a busy year: besides working on the Pictures suite and Sunless songs, Mussorgsky started another musical project, one that - like the opera Khovanshchina - would also be left unfinished…Nicholas Boulton
- 32Pesni i plyaski smerti (Songs and Dances of Death): No. 3. TrepakVladislav Sulimsky, Gürzenich‐Orchester Köln, Дмитрий Китаенко
- 33Great Composers in Words and Music: Mussorgsky started work on his Songs and Dances of Death in the first half of 1875, but the cycle was not finished until June 1877…Nicholas Boulton
- 34Pesnya Mefistofelya v pogrebke Auerbakha (Mephistopheles's Song in Auerbach's Cellar), "Song of the Flea" (excerpt)Mikhail Svetlov, Pavlina Dokovska
- 35Great Composers in Words and Music: Following Mussorgsky's dismissal from government service on 13 January 1880, the composer made further appearances as Leonova's accompanist…Nicholas Boulton
- 36Pictures at an Exhibition: X. The Great Gate at Kiev (excerpt)Dénes Várjon
More by Mussorgsky
Issues
- GSeptember 2023