Introduction

Pictures at an Exhibition: IV. Bydlo (excerpt)

Composer: Modest Mussorgsky

Performer: Dénes Várjon

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…"

Kamarinskaya (excerpt)

Composer: Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka

Ensemble: Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra

Conductor: Anthony Bramall

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…

Intermezzo in modo classico (1867 version for piano) (excerpt)

Composer: Modest Mussorgsky

Performer: Giacomo Scinardo

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…

Porte-enseigne Polka (Ensign-Polka) (excerpt)

Composer: Modest Mussorgsky

Performer: Giacomo Scinardo

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"…

Scherzo in C-Sharp Minor (excerpt)

Composer: Modest Mussorgsky

Performer: Giacomo Scinardo

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…

Pictures at an Exhibition: VIII. Catacombae (Sepulcrum romanum) (excerpt)

Composer: Modest Mussorgsky

Performer: Dénes Várjon

Another extract from Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition, this a movement titled Catacombs…

Seminarist (The Seminarist) (excerpt)

Composer: Modest Mussorgsky

Performer: Mikhail Svetlov, Pavlina Dokovska

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…

St. John's Night on Bald Mountain, "A Night on the Bare Mountain" (original version) (excerpt)

Composer: Modest Mussorgsky

Ensemble: Gürzenich-Orchester Köln

Conductor: Dmitri Kitayenko

That Mussorgsky never heard his tone-poem in performance is perhaps not surprising, given the work's immediate reception…

Zhenit'ba (The Marriage), Act I Scene 1: Vot tak nachnyosh etak (Here is how you start)

Composer: Modest Mussorgsky

Ensemble: USSR State Radio Symphony Orchestra

Performer: Daniel Demyanov

Conductor: Alexey Kovalev

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"…

Boris Godunov, Prologue Scene 1: Introduction (1869 version) (excerpt)

Composer: Modest Mussorgsky

Ensemble: Sofia National Opera Orchestra

Conductor: Konstantin Chudovsky

A final passage from Boris Godunov furnishes another example of a folk-inspired musical style…

Boris Godunov, Act IV Scene 1: Lejtes', lejtes', slëzy gor'ki (Flow, bitter tears) (1869 version)

Composer: Modest Mussorgsky

Ensemble: Sofia National Opera Orchestra

Performer: Hrisimir Damyanov

Conductor: Konstantin Chudovsky

Here at the end of the opera, Mussorgsky paints a sorrowful picture…

Khovanshchina, Act I: Introduction (excerpt)

Composer: Modest Mussorgsky

Ensemble: Sofia National Opera Orchestra

Conductor: Atanas Margaritov

At the time Mussorgsky was working on Khovanshchina, Boris finally premiered at the Mariinsky…

Pictures at an Exhibition: Promenade

Composer: Modest Mussorgsky

Performer: Dénes Várjon

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…

Pictures at an Exhibition: II. Old Castle (excerpt)

Composer: Modest Mussorgsky

Performer: Dénes Várjon

Yet, as with Boris Godunov, Pictures at an Exhibition features contrasting styles…

Pictures at an Exhibition: V. Ballet of the Chickens in their Shells

Composer: Modest Mussorgsky

Performer: Dénes Várjon

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…

Pesni i plyaski smerti (Songs and Dances of Death): No. 3. Trepak (arr. E. Denisov for voice and orchestra) (excerpt)

Composer: Modest Mussorgsky

Ensemble: Gürzenich-Orchester Köln

Performer: Vladislav Sulimsky

Conductor: Dmitri Kitayenko

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…

Pesnya Mefistofelya v pogrebke Auerbakha (Mephistopheles's Song in Auerbach's Cellar), "Song of the Flea" (excerpt)

Composer: Modest Mussorgsky

Performer: Mikhail Svetlov, Pavlina Dokovska

Following Mussorgsky's dismissal from government service on 13 January 1880, the composer made further appearances as Leonova's accompanist…

Pictures at an Exhibition: X. The Great Gate at Kiev (excerpt)

Composer: Modest Mussorgsky

Performer: Dénes Várjon