| 1 |
Great Composers in Words and Music: Introduction
Nicholas Boulton
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| 2 |
Pictures at an Exhibition: IV. Bydlo (excerpt)
Dénes Várjon
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| 3 |
Great 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
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| 4 |
Kamarinskaya (excerpt)
Symfonický orchester Slovenského rozhlasu, Anthony Bramall
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| 5 |
Great 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
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| 6 |
Intermezzo in modo classico (1867 version for piano) (excerpt)
Giacomo Scinardo
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| 7 |
Great 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
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| 8 |
Porte-enseigne Polka (Ensign-Polka) (excerpt)
Giacomo Scinardo
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| 9 |
Great 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
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| 10 |
Scherzo in C-sharp minor (excerpt)
Giacomo Scinardo
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| 11 |
Great 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
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| 12 |
Pictures at an Exhibition: VIII. Catacombae (Sepulcrum romanum) (excerpt)
Dénes Várjon
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| 13 |
Great Composers in Words and Music: Another extract from Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition, this a movement titled Catacombs…
Nicholas Boulton
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| 14 |
Seminarist (The Seminarist) (excerpt)
Mikhail Svetlov, Pavlina Dokovska
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| 15 |
Great 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
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| 16 |
St. John's Night on Bald Mountain, "A Night on the Bare Mountain" (original version) (excerpt)
Gürzenich‐Orchester Köln, Дмитрий Китаенко
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| 17 |
Great 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
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| 18 |
Zhenit'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
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| 19 |
Great 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
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| 20 |
Boris Godunov, Prologue, Scene 1: Introduction (1869 version) (excerpt)
Sofia National Opera Orchestra, Konstantin Chudovsky
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| 21 |
Great Composers in Words and Music: A final passage from Boris Godunov furnishes another example of a folk-inspired musical style…
Nicholas Boulton
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| 22 |
Boris Godunov, Act IV, Scene 1: Lejtes', lejtes', slëzy gor'ki (Flow, bitter tears) (1869 version)
Hrisimir Damyanov, Sofia National Opera Orchestra, Konstantin Chudovsky
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| 23 |
Great Composers in Words and Music: Here at the end of the opera, Mussorgsky paints a sorrowful picture…
Nicholas Boulton
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| 24 |
Khovanshchina, Act I: Introduction (excerpt)
Sofia National Opera Orchestra, Atanas Margaritov
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| 25 |
Great Composers in Words and Music: At the time Mussorgsky was working on Khovanshchina, Boris finally premiered at the Mariinsky…
Nicholas Boulton
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| 26 |
Pictures at an Exhibition: Promenade
Dénes Várjon
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| 27 |
Great 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
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| 28 |
Pictures at an Exhibition: II. Old Castle (excerpt)
Dénes Várjon
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| 29 |
Great Composers in Words and Music: Yet, as with Boris Godunov, Pictures at an Exhibition features contrasting styles…
Nicholas Boulton
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| 30 |
Pictures at an Exhibition: V. Ballet of the Chickens in their Shells
Dénes Várjon
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| 31 |
Great 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
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| 32 |
Pesni i plyaski smerti (Songs and Dances of Death): No. 3. Trepak
Vladislav Sulimsky, Gürzenich‐Orchester Köln, Дмитрий Китаенко
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| 33 |
Great 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
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| 34 |
Pesnya Mefistofelya v pogrebke Auerbakha (Mephistopheles's Song in Auerbach's Cellar), "Song of the Flea" (excerpt)
Mikhail Svetlov, Pavlina Dokovska
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| 35 |
Great 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
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| 36 |
Pictures at an Exhibition: X. The Great Gate at Kiev (excerpt)
Dénes Várjon
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