Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky (1839-81): Piano music, vol. I I I ] Porte-enseigne.Polka. (Ensign-Polka)(l 852) B-Flat Major 3:43 [ 2 ] Souvenir d'enfance. (Childhoodmemories) (1857) B Minor 5:59 [ 3 ] Scherzo.(1858) C-SharyMinor 4:05 [ 4 ] Jeux d6nfants-lesquatre coins. (Children'sgames, hide-and-seek) (1860) D Major 2:56 [ 5 ] Niania et moi. (Nanny and I) (1865) G Major 2:09 [ 6 ] Premidre punition. (First punishmen| (186-5)A Minor l:54 [ 7 ] Une larme. (A Tear)(1880) G Minor 4.J1 [ 8 ] Intermezzo symfonique. (1861)B Minor 4:J8 [ 9 ] Au village. (In the Village) (1880) G Major 5.03 [10] Impromptu passion6.( 1859)F-Sharp Major 3:56 [1] La capricieuse.(Russian: "Shalunja": a mischievousgirl) (1865)A Minor -1.04 ll2l M6ditation. (Russian:"Razdumye") (1880) D Minor 5:28 [13] La couturibre. (The Seamstress)(181O-12) D-Fiat Major 2:46 [1,1]R6verie. (Russian:"Duma": thought) (1865) E-Flat Minor 6:09 [15] En Crim6e. (Near the southernbank of the Crimea) (1880)B-Flat Minor 1:08 [16] En Crim6e. (On the southbank of the Crimea) ( 1880)E-flat Minor 5.55 Nina Kavtaraze - Piano This recordingwas supportedby the AugustinusFonden and Solistforeningenof 192I Piano:Steinway. Juhl Sorensen. .z Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky (1839-81):Piano music, vol. I The history of Russian art-music is somewhat short. The tirst of any importance was Michail Glinka ( I 804 57), justifiably called "the f'atherof Russian music". He became an example for subsequent generationsof Russian composers, but in the latter half of the l9'1'century the history of Russian nlusic was divided. The brothers Anton and Nicholas Rubinstein tbunded the nation's first two conservatoires, and here Peter Tchaikovsky became the first important, academically trained composer. But the virtuoso pianist and self'-taughtcomposer Mily Balakirev (1837-1910) felt that the conservatoiretraining initiaied the studentsinto the ways of western music. He wished to create national Russian music which was based on the works ofthe Russian poets, Russian folklore and folk-music, and which rejected the fbrms of Westem classicism, sonatas,symphonies, string quartets etc. In tact he was not wholly consistent, since he himself wrote two symphonies, two piano concertos and one piano sonata.Four othel young composers - Alexander Borodin, C6sar Cui, Modest Mussorgsky and Nikolas Rimsky-Korsakov gath- ered around Balakirev and were, as such, importantly intluenced by him. They were all talented and original, but Mussotgsky was the genius of the group. The famous critic Stasov called the group "Moguchaya kuchka" ("The Mighty handful") as they are still known today. Mussorgsky's family belonged to the gentry and his childhood was influenced by aristocratic culture. He had piano lessonsand was already at the age of seven able to play smaller pieces by Liszt. He continued to receive piano tuition in St. Petersburgwith the German-born teacherAnton Herke and blossomed into a virtuoso. At the age of thirteen he entered the junker school, a preparatory military academy in St. Petersburg, and here he wrote his flrst known composition, Port Enseigne Polka, and with this and his talent for providing piano entertainment at parties and balls he soon became a popular society man and drawing-room lion. Without having learned the theory ofmusic he continued to compose, became acquaintedwith Ralakirev and became convinced that he should not only be a composer, but a Rasslan composer. He abandoned his career as an oflicer, becoming a civil servant.but also a dipsomaniac. The family became bankrupt when sertdom was abolished, his father died, and togethef with his mother and brothers and sistershe moved to an apafiment in St. Petersburg.However he tore himself away fiom a strong mother-fixrtir)n and with others, including his friend Rimsky-Korsakov, he moved into a community, a socialistically- inspired collective. Later he shared an apartment for some years with Rimsky-Korsakov. Mussorgsky never manied. His closest relationship with a woman was his friendship with Glinka's sister. Owing to his alcohol problem and lack of any grounding in musical theory Mussorgsky gave up com posing many works when he was only half-way through. There are a number of unfinished operas and sketchesof orchcstral works. But one large scale work he did complete: the Russian national opera Boris Gudunov, a masterpiecewhich was thoroughly misunderstood. It was thought that owing to the composer's lack of technique the work was detective, and people firiled to recognize the shecr brilliance ofall the innovations he had created.With hindsight we regard his music as one ofthe prerequisitesof musical impressionism (Debussy) and modernism (Ban6k). Mussorgsky is at his greatest apart frcm the opera - in his songs, but the piano music also holds many treasures,and not only the extended suite "Pictures at an Exhibition". In I 88 I welhneaning friends sent Mussorgsky on a tour of Southern Russia to accompany a singer. But he had to interrupt the tour and retum home in order to be treated firr delirium tremens. He died in hospital, only 42 years old. Four days before he died Vladimir Repin finished his famous portrait ol the composer, a picture which is consideredto be one of the artist's best. 'Ah, poor me" were Mussorgsky's last words befbre he died on 28'r'March 1881. Piano nrusic vol. I Porte-enseigne-Polka in B flat major, written by the composer at the early age o1 13, is his first pub- lished work, a piece of light music which reveals something of his virtuoso piano technique. It is dedi cated to "friends at the junker school". Mussorgsky was considered by hls contempo|aries to be an even grerter piantr virturrso than Anton Rubinstein. One of Mussorgsky's admirers, Kompaneisky, writes in his memoires: "Besides being a tirst class pianist Mussorgsky was in no way inf'erior to Anton Rubinstein, especially with regard to express- ing composers'characteristics.The keys chimed like bells and resounded like a wind band. As a pirnist Mussorgsky was an inintitably humorous perfbrmer, he kept an extremely straight face, which made it all the more funnv." And his fiiend and colleague Rimsky Korsakov wrote: "Ever since his youth Mussorgsky was a brilliant pianist. Singers loved hirn and fully appreciatedhis accompaniment. He followed the voice admirably and accompanied at sight, without rchearsal."A singer wrote: 'As an accompanist he is so wonderful that we have never experienced anything like it. He pursued acconpaniment to such a degree of pert'ection, with such virtuosity, that none of the musicians on the stagehad any notion of it. With his accompaniment he has really said something new and shown what great importance it has in relation to artistic perform- ance as a whole." Mussorgsky's mother was his first piano teacher,and already at the age of nine he played one ofJohn Field's piano concertos in a conceft his parents had arrangedin the farnily home. Souvenir d'enfance (Childhood memories) in B minor is dated l6'h October 1857 and dedicatedto Mussorgsky's friend Nicholas Obolensky. Ifone is acquainted with Chekhov's tales then one will recog nize the Russian atnlosphere,the depiction of a house in the country with monotonously ticking clocks, quietly rocking cradles and a nostalgia which cuts one to the quick. Mussorgsky himselfwas very tbnd of this niece. Scherzo in C sharp minor is dated 25'hNovember I 857 but was later revised. The original verslon ls played here. Jeux d'enfants - les quatre coins (Children's games, hide-and-seek) in D major, a description of the nursery, like Mussorgsky's well-known song cycle Frurynthe Nursery. Dated 28n May 1860. Souvenir d'enfance (Childhood rnemories): l. Nania and I (Nanny and I), G major, 2. Premiire punition (First punishment), A minor. "Nanny (the nursemaid) Iocks me in a dark room", writes the composer about the second piece. The two pieces are dated 22"d April I 865 and are dedicated to the memory of the composer's mother. The last I 3 bars of the second piece are missing and are here com- pleted in Karatygin's version. Une larme (A l'ear) in G minor (1880) is from Mussorgsky's final period. lt is a deeply melancholy, tuneful and very beautiful piece which might be suggestiveofChopin's nocturnes, were it not lbr the highly personal style. Intermezzo symphonique in B minor. One of Mussorgsky'smost importantpi:rno works. He com- posedit in 1861(it is thefirst versionwhich is playedhere), revised it laterand orchestrated it in ex tendedfom for orchestra,thereby creating one of the tew orchestralworks which areentirely his own (The fantasia'A Night on the Bme Mountain" is most often heard in the adaptation by Mussorgsky's friend Rimsky-Korsakov). Ten years after its completion Mussorgsky told the critic Stasov that the piece had been inspired by an experience he had had in the country: on a splendid, sunny day of rejoicing he saw a group of stable lads who strode over snow drifts, tumbled into the snow and crawled about in it with great difficulty. "lt was altogether both beautiful :rnd picturesque, serious and funny. And suddenly in the distance a group of young women materialized: they were walking along a path, laughing and singing. ln a flash this picture became rnusic in my head in the lbrm of a rnelody I la Bach. I imagined happy, laughing women in the fbrm of a melody which I later used in the middle section of the trio. But all this - in the classical mould, in accordancewith rny musical studies ofthe time". The trio which Mussorgsky mentions here only exists in the orchestral version- The piece is introduced by a theme, a melody which is certainly reminiscent of Bach, and the whole conception has a classical character seldom found in Mussorgsky.