Mussorgsky

[beclemund]

I'm totally ignorant of Mussorgsky's music, except for Pictures at an Exhibition (which I very much enjoy, except for the lousy lyrics, of course)

What other Works would you guys recommend?

I guess that depends on whether you dislike vocal works in general , because the piece I enjoy the most, and would recommend, is Boris Godunov an opera.

[Heather Harrison]

You copy your lp's to disc? If so what kind of equipment are  you using. Does it take a considerable amount of time? Burning from disc to disc takes very little time. I have been contemplating this for quite awhile...It just seems like a huge task.....

It does take time, so I only do it for certain LPs.  I used to have a friend do it, as he had better equipment.  However, I recently got a Mac and some software which should work for this, and when I get around to it, this LP will be the first one that I copy.

Heather

[lukeottevanger]

What was the original question? Was there one? Well, in any case - the songs are the Mussorgsky I listen to most of all, particularly the two song cycles already mentioned, and above all Sunless, which is a flawless set of gems, Mussorgsky at both his most introverted and his most audacious [in fact, I think I will put it on right now]. Boris, of course, is fantastic, surely Mussorgsky's greatest work, but in Sunless and the Songs and Dances of Death you get the whole thing distilled into exquisite small scale pieces. Homeopathic Mussorgsky, if you like. And I do.

[val]

Regarding the songs, I prefer the original versions with piano.
Regarding Songs and dances of Death, I also prefer a female voice (Arkhipova with Wulstan was extraordinary).
But the 2 CD of songs recorded by Leiferkus is also remarkable. The best version of Sans Soleil that I have listened so far. There are songs, not belonging to the three cycles, that are very beautiful: one of them, Savichna, always touched me deeply.

And there are the operas. Boris, with Petrov, Arkhipova, Melik-Pachaev (I don't think the version of Rimski-Korsakov is that bad, in special if the interpreters respect the original order of the scenes), Khovantchina with Reizen and Khaikine or with Arkhipova and the same Khaikine.

Mussorgsky is, with Stravinsky, my preferred among russian composers.

[BachQ]

What other Works would you guys recommend?

Boris Godunov
Night on Bare/Bald Mountain
Pictures at an Exhibition
Songs and Dances of Death
Sunless
Prelude to Khovanshchina

[Iconito]

I guess that depends on whether you dislike vocal works in general , because the piece I enjoy the most, and would recommend, is Boris Godunov an opera.

I do not dislike vocal works in general. Far from it, I love vocals works in general... Although I do seem to have a problem with operas in particular... Except for Fidelio, I haven't been able to really enjoy that genre....yet. But I haven't listened to a LOT of operas, really, so it's only mi ignorance talking (It takes such a lot of work to be able to say "I don't like that" and still have some peace of mind...  ) I'll try Boris Godunov, beclemund. Thank you!

Boris Godunov
Night on Bare/Bald Mountain
Pictures at an Exhibition
Songs and Dances of Death
Sunless
Prelude to Khovanshchina

Thank you, D! 

[BachQ]

I do not dislike vocal works in general. Far from it, I love vocals works in general... Although I do seem to have a problem with operas in particular... Except for Fidelio, I haven't been able to really enjoy that genre....yet. But I haven't listened to a LOT of operas, really, so it's only mi ignorance talking (It takes such a lot of work to be able to say "I don't like that" and still have some peace of mind...  ) I'll try Boris Godunov, beclemund. Thank you!

Boris Godunov is NOT like any other opera ....... Even if you generally dislike opera, you might like this gem ........

[vandermolen]

Boris Godunov is NOT like any other opera ....... Even if you generally dislike opera, you might like this gem ........

It is the ONLY opera I like (sorry opera fans) and I've seen it live two or three times in London. I like the "Symphonic Synthesis" arranged by Stokowski although many purists will disapprove I'm sure 

My favourite composer painting:

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.geocities.com/sulawesiprince/russia/art_images/repin-mussorgsky.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.geocities.com/sulawesiprince/russia/art_images/repin1881.html&h=574&w=480&sz=49&hl=en&start=1&um=1&tbnid=1QFQTVfyRYiUNM:&tbnh=134&tbnw=112&prev=/images%3Fq%3Drepin%2Bmussorgsky%26svnum%3D10%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26ie%3DUTF-8

[Daverz]

I recently found a good copy of it.

Not an easy record to find in good condition.  I've seen it going for $125 on ebay.  It was reissued by Chesky (they no longer press Lps unfortunately) and Quintessence.  The Quintessence pressing was my imprint recording of these Mussorgsky works (and it had Leibowitz's Danse Macabre as an extra fill.)

[karlhenning]

It is the ONLY opera I like (sorry opera fans) and I've seen it live two or three times in London.

Well, if one is to love only one opera, this is one excellent opera to like!

[lukeottevanger]

Well, if one is to love only one opera, this is one excellent opera to like!

Isn't the technical term for loving only one opera 'monoperaly'?

I'd recommend checking out Janacek's operas fro those who 'only like Boris', though, if I didn't wish to avoid sounding like a stuck record. However, it is pertinent to point out that of all the other 'great' composers, Janacek is the most like Mussorgsky, and Mussorgsky the most like Janacek. Their artistic aims are practically interchangable - the explicit concentration on Truth over Beauty which both men spoke of passionately; their technical means show marked similarity (the use of 'speech melodies' and the aesthetic behind this for instance).

[Danny]

I still argue for Szell and the CO for an excellent version of Pictures at an Exhibition (altough Reiner with the CSO is pretty darn close--he also offers a perfectly macabre version of the Night on Bald Mountain).

Whatever you do, do not buy the GROC version of Boris Godunov conducted by Andre Cluytens.  Boris Christoff sings three roles in this one and its just bizaare hearing the voice of Boris in the roles of Pimen and Vaarlam.  Not to say that I don't like this recording, but if you're just starting out, look elsewhere!

[BachQ]

It is the ONLY opera I like (sorry opera fans) and I've seen it live two or three times in London. I like the "Symphonic Synthesis" arranged by Stokowski although many purists will disapprove I'm sure 

Good for you!  I hope to run across that Symphonic Synthesis some day ........

[karlhenning]

Yes, I ran over some Symphonic Synthesis the other day . . . .

[BachQ]

Isn't the technical term for loving only one opera 'monoperaly'?

I'd recommend checking out Janacek's operas fro those who 'only like Boris', though, if I didn't wish to avoid sounding like a stuck record. However, it is pertinent to point out that of all the other 'great' composers, Janacek is the most like Mussorgsky, and Mussorgsky the most like Janacek. Their artistic aims are practically interchangable - the explicit concentration on Truth over Beauty which both men spoke of passionately; their technical means show marked similarity (the use of 'speech melodies' and the aesthetic behind this for instance).

I couldn't agree with you more, Luke.  Janacek and Mussorgsky are birds of a feather ........ it's undeniable ........

[BachQ]

As a more proper introduction to Modest Mussorgsky:



Russian composer Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky (1839-81), a member of The Five (Mighty Five), is best known for  the opera Boris Godunov (which Rimsky-Korsakov re-orchestrated in 1896 and again revised in 1908); the orchestral tone poem Night on the Bald Mountain, (revised by Rimsky-Korsakov); and the piano suite Pictures at an Exhibition.  The opera Khovanshchina was unfinished and unperformed when Mussorgsky died (but it was completed by Rimsky-Korsakov and received its premier in 1886 in St. Petersburg).  Mussorgsky left another opera, Sorochintsy Fair, incomplete at his death (although the popular Gopak derives therefrom).  Among his other works are a number of songs, including three song cycles: The Nursery (1872), Sunless (1874) and Songs and Dances of Death (1877). 

From Grove: "Many of Mussorgsky's works were unfinished, and their editing and posthumous publication were mainly carried out by Rimsky-Korsakov, who to a greater or lesser degree 'corrected' what Mussorgsky had composed. Boris Godunov, in particular, was reshaped and repolished, with drastic cuts, wholesale rewriting and rescoring, insertion of new music and transposition of scenes. It was only many years later that, with a return to the composer's original drafts, the true nature of his rough art could be properly understood, for Mussorgsky shared with some of the painters of his day a disdain for formal beauty, technical polish and other manifestations of 'art for art's sake'. His desire was to relate his art as closely as possible to life, especially that of the Russian masses, to nourish it on events and to employ it as a means for communicating human experience."

I've always felt that Mussorgsky had an extremely unique, original voice.  His influence has been acknowledged by Janacek (as Luke points out), Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Rachmaninov, and others.  His later years was characterized by a steep decline into alcoholism, which, by several accounts, probably killed him.

[BachQ]

GROVE BIO EXTRACT

LIST OF WORKS

NAXOS w/ BIO and SAMPLES

[BachQ]

Classical.net Recommendations.

[Danny]

I still need Pictures played on the pianer.

[BachQ]

I still need Pictures played on the pianer.

Ask and ye shall receive:

Evgeny Kissin performing (part 1 of 4)