Mussorgsky

Mussorgsky’s “Boris Godunov”: Two Recordings of Pimen’s Monologue

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In the haunting opening measures of Dmitri Shostakovich’s Ninth String Quartet, an undulating line, emerging first in the second violin and then sliding stealthily into other inner voices, snakes forward, as if to draw us into an unfolding musical narrative. The line which wanders into Shostakovich’s String Quartet of 1964 is the same undulating figure we hear throughout Pimen’s Monologue, which opens the first act of Modest Mussorgsky’s opera, Boris Godunov, composed between …

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Mussorgsky’s “Mysterious Powers” from “Khovanshchina”: Dolora Zajick

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Modest Mussorgsky’s opera, Khovanshchina, is set in a dark and politically unstable period of Russian history. The five-act “national music drama,” composed in Saint Petersburg between 1872 and 1880, tells the story of the 1682 rebellion, led by Prince Ivan Khovansky and the Old Believers, against Peter the Great. Additionally, the plot involves the disloyalty of the corrupt Prince Vasily Golitsyn. At its center, the conflict is between the continuation of a …

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Mussorgsky’s “Boris Godunov” (1869 Version): “Death Does Not Frighten Me”

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Set in Russia between 1598 and 1605, Modest Mussorgsky’s opera, Boris Godunov, tells the story of a Tsar who usurps the throne by brutal means, bears witness to the suffering of his people, and, as a result of his misdeeds, descends into loneliness, remorse, paranoia, and madness, leading to his ultimate death. In the end, it is the Russian people, represented by a mighty chorus in the opera’s epic Coronation Scene, which endures. …

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Mussorgsky Songs: “Night” and “Where Art Thou, Little Star?”

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Modest Mussorgsky’s 1864 art song, Noch (“Night) inhabits a hazy, sensuous nocturnal dreamscape. The text by Alexander Pushkin begins with the lines, “My voice is for you both tender and languid, it disturbs the late silence of night’s darkness.” Throughout the poem, the brightness of eyes illuminated by the light of a “sorrowful candle” is contrasted with the gloom of the night. The psychologically erratic Mussorgsky (1839-1881) was a member of “The Mighty Five,” a …

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Remembering Dmitri Hvorostovsky

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The Russian operatic baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky passed away this week following a two-and-a-half-year battle with brain cancer. He was 55. Here are some highlights from his distinguished career: In the aria, Ja vas lyublyu, from the second act of Tchaikovsky’s The Queen of Spades, Prince Yeletsky pours out his love for Liza while lamenting her inability to trust him fully. Listen to the way this aria moves from majestically soaring passion to the depths of despair as the …

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Five Musical Sunrises

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Natural cycles, from the change of seasons to the predictable routine of day turning to night, shape our sense of time. Can you imagine how our perception of time, and subsequently music, would be different without these events? Nature’s visual grandeur has also been an inspiration to composers, especially the eternal drama of the sunrise. Here are five musical depictions: [typography font=”Cantarell” size=”28″ size_format=”px”]Haydn’s “Sunrise” String Quartet[/typography] Haydn’s String Quartet in B flat …

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