March 21, 1839 – March 28, 1881
On this day, the Russian composer Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky was born in Karevo. The work of this composer had the greatest influence on the development of Russian music. During his artistic career, he worked on five operas, four of which he did not complete. He has written a number of symphonic works, cycles of vocal and piano music, many romances and choral compositions. He was an officer by profession, but he left the service to join a group of nationally oriented composers, the so-called “Five”. He attracted attention with his artistic poetics and originality, with the use of folklore elements in his works. Due to his unusual and modern way of composing, his quality and work were not recognized during his lifetime, and today his two operas Boris Godunov and Khovanshchina are recognized masterpieces of the World Musical Theater, as well as the piano suite Pictures at an Exhibition. The dramaturgy of his opera music influenced the composition of Leoš Janáček, Igor Stravinsky, Dmitri Shostakovich, Alban Berg, Olivier Messiaen and many others. Rimsky-Korsakov, a friend of Mussorgsky, was the first to perform his work publicly, and in addition, Korsakov devoted several years of his life to editing his friend’s musical heritage.
Modest Mussorgsky – Pictures at an Exhibition, movement 2
Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Translation: Jelena Čolović