MUSORGSKY’S 
​PICTURES AT AN EXHIBITIION

By Judith Eckelmeyer

(GRACE WOODS MUSIC SESSION AUGUST 28, 2024)

Mussorgsky, c. 1870

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​Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky was born into a family with both well-to-do and, courtesy of his paternal grandfather, peasant roots in 1839, in Karevo, a small (read  31 souls in 2001) village in north-western Russia. Both branches of his heritage played a role in his life.

Young Mussorgsky as a cadet in the Preobrazhensky Regiment of the Imperial Guard, 1856

His father’s land-owning heritage brought the tradition of youthful military training at a cadet school in St. Petersburg, where his studies included history, German philosophy, religious instruction, and the beginning of his acquaintance with formal music, especially that of the Russian composer Bortniansky.  From his mother he learned to play the piano, simply at first, but by age 7 he was playing short pieces by Liszt. At age 9  went on to more advanced piano lessons with a professional pianist. During even these early years he was beginning to compose, and became adept at improvising at the piano for his friends. 

Alexander Dargomyzhsky (Portrait by Konstantin Makovsky, 1869)

César Cui, 1910

Portrait of Balakirev, c. 1900

A significant breakthrough in his life occurred when he was 18: he met the well-known composer Dargomizhky and César Cui, both of whom broadened Modest’s musical knowledge of major Western composers of the early 19th century. But they also introduced him to Mily Balakrev, and thus the door opened to Modest’s embrace of “everything Russian”. He resigned his military commission and committed himself to composing and exploring Russian culture.

In 1860, a nervous condition forced him to stop composing for a while, during which time he reassessed his compositional style and began working in a new way with a focus on Russian topics. The first manifestation was a rendering of the v witches’ sabbath on Bare Mountain, from a story by Gogol. This would later grow into the tone poem Night on Bare Mountain. In the following year the emancipation of the serfs, some of whom of course worked for his family, put the estate in jeopardy. Two years later, in financial difficulty, he entered civil service and was posted to a variety of jobs over the next 4 or so years, when he was dismissed from the Ministry he served. (However, he continued to be employed as a government clerk for another 22 years.) ​

Het Radio Filharmonisch Orkest o.l.v. Markus Stenz speelt Moessorgski tijdens het openingsconcert van seizoen 2016-2017 van het AVROTROS Vrijdagconcert.

He moved to St. Petersburg and continued composing, delving ever more deeply into new techniques for rendering living reality through the setting of text. Besides treating Russian topics, his goal was to devise a natural presentation of the rhythms and stresses of the Russian language in a melodic recitative, and, in his several stage works, on naturalism. His opera Boris Godunov, completed in 1874 after several revisions at the insistence of powerful theater committees, displays these characteristics very well. 

Four other composers in his circle—César Cui, Mily Balakirev, Alexander Borodin, Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov—were similarly working outside the classical Western tradition and together they were known as the “Mighty Five”. ​​

César Cui

Mily Balakirev

Alexander Borodin

Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov

Modest Mussorgsky

By this time he had begun drinking heavily, experiencing DTs and other serious conditions, and was forced to leave the living quarters he had shared with friends. He went to live with his brother. Alcoholism would haunt him for the rest of his life, eventually leading him into penury and illness. 
Through it all he continued to compose and appear at performances of his music until nearly the last day of his life. He died of the effects of his alcoholic disease in March, 1881.

Ilya Repin's celebrated portrait of Mussorgsky, painted 2–5 March 1881, only a few days before the composer's death

Musorgsky was notably not known for brilliant orchestration or for conventions of harmony and form typical of formal Western music. Many of his works were “corrected” or “improved” by others, especially Rimsky-Korsakov. Such is the case of Boris Godunov which was subjected to significant modification by Rimsky. On the other hand, Pictures at An Exhibition, originally written for solo piano, was left unaltered and unfamiliar to most of the world until addressed by Maurice Ravel who imagined it into an orchestral suite; Ravel’s 1922 version, the earliest orchestration, brought the work wide-spread fame.

Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition
Khatia Buniatishvili, piano

National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America performs Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition,
under the direction of David Robertson, in the orchestra’s Carnegie Hall debut on July 22, 2014.

Viktor Hartmann

Pictures was Musorgsky’s memorial to his friend Victor Hartmann (1834-1873); born in St. Petersburg Hartmann was a recognized architect and artist whose works were displayed in 1874 at the Academy of Fine Arts in that city. Of the more than 400 of Hartmann’s works shown, Musorgsky selected 10 that inspired his music. Fortunately, of 65 works existing today, 6 of Musorgsky’s 10 have survived; the other 4 are lost. ​

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FURTHER INFORMATION ON THE 6 IMAGES ARE ON A SEPARATE HANDOUT. THOSE WHO HAVE COMPUTER ACCESS TO THE INTERNET CAN ALSO FIND MUCH MORE THERE. 

1. Promenade
2. Gnomus
3. Promenade
4. The Old Castle
5. Promenade
6. Tuileries
7. Bydło (Cattle)
8. Promenade
9. Ballet of Chicks in their shells 10.Samuel Goldberg and Schmuyle
10. Limoges Market
11. Catacomgs
12. With the dead in the language of the dead
13. The Hut on Fowl’s Legs (Baba Yaga)
14. The Great Gate of Kiev

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Judith Eckelmeyer ©2024