Modest Mussorgsky

Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky (Russian Модест Петрович Мусоргский, Research Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky transliteration; * 9.jul / March 21 1839greg in Karewo, Circle Toropetz, province Pskov, Russian Empire, .. † 16.jul / March 28 1881greg. . in Saint Petersburg ) was a Russian composer. He was primarily known for his operas and piano cycle Pictures at an Exhibition and is considered one of the most original Russian composers of the 19th century. He died at the age of 42 years from the effects of years of alcohol dependence. Many started works remain unfinished.

Biography

Born the youngest son of a wealthy landowner in Karewo, Modest Mussorgsky learned from his mother and a German governess to play the piano. At the age of seven he already mastered short pieces by Franz Liszt, and at the age of nine years he played in front of a large audience in his parents' house a concert by John Field. In August 1849, he began piano lessons with Anton Herke to take a student of Adolf Henselt, and was a student at the prestigious Petri school.

In 1852, he joined the Cadet School in St. Petersburg, where he occupied himself especially with history and philosophy. He was there also a member of the school choir, and at the suggestion of his religion teacher, Father Krupski, he also dealt with Bortnianski and other Russian church music of the early 19th century. " Porte- enseigne Polka", which was dedicated to his classmates and was printed at the expense of his father: At this time, his first composition was published. In 1856 he left the military academy and joined the Preobrazhensky Guards Regiment. About Dargomyzhsky and César Cui he met Mily Balakirev know from which he first formal instruction in music theory was given which based on the great works of Ludwig van Beethoven, Franz Schubert and Robert Schumann essentially. After a crisis, he left on July 17, 1858, the regiment, the collaboration with Balakirev continued, however.

A visit to Moscow in the summer of 1859 moved him deeply and made him its own estimation of cosmopolitans to Russians. The abolition of serfdom in the Russian Empire in 1861 led his family into trouble, so he spent the next two years in the country to help his two brothers in the management of the family estate in Karewo. However, financial difficulties forced him soon to arise in the administrative service of the Tsar. In 1863 he was appointed to in the engineering department of the Ministry of Communications. After a promotion in December 1866 he was made redundant again on 10 May 1867. After the publication of Chernyshevsky's novel new ideas in Russia had become popular, and so lived Mussorgsky during this time in a "commune " with four other young men: Mily Balakirev, César Cui, Alexander Borodin and Nikolai Rimsky- Korsakov, where he participating in the lively exchange of ideas about art, philosophy and politics. The group was referred to ironically as The Mighty Handful or Group of Five.

Except Balakirev were all music lovers, so no professional musicians. They fought against the academic professionalism. They wanted to create something new by the folklore of Russia, deliberately as dilettantes. This movement broke out that the bourgeoisie muster no sympathy for them.

After his release drew Mussorgsky to his brother, the country, where he dealt in particular with orchestral works. From this period dates the first version of his symphonic poem Night on Bald Mountain. After returning to St. Petersburg, he began to compose the opera Boris Godunov, based on a play by Pushkin. On January 2, 1869, he returned to government service, this time within the forestry department of the Ministry of State-owned. In secure circumstances he quickly came forward with writing the opera and put the manuscript in December of the same year completed. Rejected by the Mariinsky Theatre, he revised the piece until July 1872 once again drastically, but this time he had no success. However, three scenes of his work have been presented with great success in the context of a charity event at the initiative of some singers. This eventually led to the directorship of the Mariinsky Theatre transversely placed no more, so that it could come to the premiere of Boris Godunov on February 8, 1874. At this time, Mussorgsky began violently drinking; he saw in himself the symptoms of dementia. Nevertheless, he was further promoted in his ministry career for the time being.

In June 1874, he wrote the piano cycle Pictures at an Exhibition, which was inspired by an exhibition of drawings and stage designs of his deceased friend Viktor Hartmann. At the same time the song cycle Sunless was based on the poems of Golenishtchev - Kutuzov.

Between March and April 1877, a further series of songs to poems by Alexei Konstantinovich Tolstoy, The illustrative for the first time his new composition technique in which combines lyrical singing and a declamatory rezitativähnliche language originated.

In 1878 Mussorgsky joined by the forestry department in the audit department, where he found a sympathetic supervisor in T. Filippov, who gave him among other things, space for a three-month concert tour with the contralto Daria Leonova in the Ukraine, the Crimea and cities to Don and Volga had.

On January 13, 1880 Mussorgsky had to leave the civil service because of his drunkenness, but received under the condition that he bring his half-finished opera Khovanshchina at the end, granted a pension of 100 rubles. Both Khovanshchina and the comic opera The Fair at Sorochyntsi, however, were not completed.

In his last years he lived partly at Daria Leonova on her estate. For them, he worked as accompanist and teacher of theory in the music school founded by her in St. Petersburg. His last public appearance took place on August 15, 1880, when Rimsky- Korsakov conducted his choral work The Destruction of Sennacherib and the composer owed ​​the applause. Eight days later, Mussorgsky Leonova visited again in desperate mood. According to her, he thought he could because of his desperate financial situation nothing more than to beg. After a seizure the evening of the same day and three on the following day he was admitted on 26 February in the Nicolaevsky Hospital. After apparent recovery in mid-March, during which Repin painted his famous portrait, Mussorgsky died on the 28th of the same month. It is located on the Alexander Nevsky cemetery buried in St. Petersburg.

Mussorgsky's style and aesthetics

In his last year, Mussorgsky wrote an autobiographical sketch, although in many respects has inaccuracies, but with a very clear statement sent out to his artistic position:

Works (selection)

Most of Moussorgsky's works were unfinished at his death in condition and were edited after his death by his friend Rimsky- Korsakov and " corrected " the opera Khovanshchina. The major piano work Pictures at an Exhibition has been orchestrated by several other composers; the best-known version is by Maurice Ravel.

• Symphonic poem Night on Bald Mountain
• Operas Khovanshchina
• Boris Godunov
• The Fair Sorochyntsi
• Salammbô
• The Marriage

• Song cycle Sunless
• Song cycle nursery
• Song cycle Songs and Dances of Death
• The Hut on Hen's Legs

Others

Mussorgsky was immortalized on a modern Russian coin ( palladium ).

1987 the Saarland Rundfunk under the title "Tell me, Nanjuschka " aired a scenic film version of the song cycle " nursery " with the singer Trudeliese Schmidt. Director: Hans Emmerling, Producer: Peter Rocholl.

In November 2009, the Norwegian pianist Leif Ove Andsnes realized together with the South African performance artist Robin Rhode multimedia project Pictures Reframed, which reinterpreted Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition.

2011 were designed by the choreographer Wang Xinpeng together with the playwrights and writers Christian Baier the fairy tale ballet Fantasia - Wake in your dream (UA Ballet Dortmund 2011) by the composer's music.