Life story. A mighty bunch of Russian composers: Mussorgsky The main works of Modest Petrovich Musorgsky

March 2, 1881 at the door of the capital's Nikolaev military hospital, located on Slonovaya Street in Sands, an unusual visitor entered with a canvas in his hands. He went to the room of his old friend, who had been brought in two weeks earlier with delirium tremens and nervous exhaustion. Putting the canvas on the table, opening the brushes and paints, Repin peered into the familiar tired and exhausted face. Four days later, the only lifetime portrait of the Russian genius was ready. Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky admired his image for only 9 days and died. He was defiantly bold and one of the most fatal musical creators of the 19th century. A brilliant personality, an innovator who was ahead of his time and had a significant impact on the development of not only Russian, but also European music. Mussorgsky's life, as well as the fate of his works, was difficult, but the fame of the composer will be eternal, because his music is imbued with love for the Russian land and the people who live on it.

Read a brief biography of Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky and many interesting facts about the composer on our page.

Brief biography of Mussorgsky

Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky was born on March 9, 1839. His family nest was an estate in the Pskov region, where he lived until the age of 10. The proximity of peasant life, folk songs and a simple village way of life formed in him that worldview, which later became the main theme of his work. Under the guidance of his mother, he began to play the piano early. The boy had a developed imagination and, listening to the nurse's tales, sometimes he could not fall asleep all night from shock. These emotions found their expression in piano improvisations.

According to Mussorgsky's biography, in connection with moving to St. Petersburg in 1849, his musical studies were combined with studies at the gymnasium, and then at the School of Guards Ensigns. Modest Petrovich emerged from the walls of the latter not only as an officer, but also as an excellent pianist. After a short military service, he retired in 1858 to concentrate entirely on his composing. This decision was greatly facilitated by acquaintance with M.A. Balakirev who taught him the basics of composition. With the advent of Mussorgsky, the final composition is formed " mighty handful».

The composer works hard, the premiere of the first opera makes him famous, but other works do not find understanding even among the Kuchkists. There is a split in the group. Shortly before this, Mussorgsky, due to extreme need, returns to serve in various departments, but his health begins to fail. Manifestations of "nervous disease" are combined with addiction to alcohol. He spends several years at his brother's estate. In St. Petersburg, being in constant financial difficulties, he lives with various acquaintances. Only once, in 1879, he managed to break out on a trip to the southern regions of the Empire with the singer D. Leonova as her accompanist. Unfortunately, the inspiration from this trip did not last long. Mussorgsky returned to the capital, was expelled from the service and again plunged into apathy and drunkenness. He was a sensitive, generous, but deeply lonely person. On the day when he was expelled from a rented apartment for non-payment, he had a stroke. Modest Petrovich spent another month in the hospital, where he died in the early morning of March 16, 1881.

Interesting facts about Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky

• Mentioning two versions of " Boris Godunov”, we mean - copyright. But there are also "editions" of other composers. There are at least 7 of them! ON THE. Rimsky-Korsakov, who lived with Mussorgsky in the same apartment at the time of the creation of the opera, had such an individual vision of this musical material that two of its versions left a few bars of the original source unchanged. E. Melngailis, P.A. Lamm, D.D. Shostakovich, K. Rathouse, D. Lloyd-Jones.
• Sometimes, in order to complete the reproduction of the author's intention and original music, a scene at St. Basil's Cathedral from the first edition is added to the version of 1872.
• Khovanshchina, for obvious reasons, also suffered numerous editing - Rimsky-Korsakov, Shostakovich, Stravinsky And Ravel. D.D. version Shostakovich is considered the closest to the original.

• Conductor Claudio Abbado for " Khovanshchina» In 1989, at the Vienna Opera, he made his own compilation of music: he restored some episodes in the author's orchestration, crossed out by Rimsky-Korsakov, based on D. Shostakovich's version and the finale ("Final Chorus"), created by I. Stravinsky. Since then, this combination has been repeatedly repeated in European productions of the opera.
• Despite the fact that both Pushkin and Mussorgsky presented Boris Godunov as a child killer in their works, there is no direct historical evidence that Tsarevich Dimitri was killed on his orders. The youngest son of Ivan the Terrible suffered from epilepsy and, according to eyewitnesses and the official investigation, died in an accident while playing with a sharp object. The version of contract killing was supported by the mother of Tsarevich Marya Nagaya. Probably out of revenge on Godunov, she recognized her son in False Dmitry I, although she later retracted her words. Interestingly, the investigation into the case of Dimitri was led by Vasily Shuisky, who later, after becoming king, changed his point of view, unequivocally stating that the boy was killed on behalf of Boris Godunov. This opinion is also shared by N.M. Karamzin in "History of the Russian State".

• Sister M.I. Glinka L.I. Shestakova presented Mussorgsky with an edition of Boris Godunov by A.S. Pushkin with pasted blank sheets. It was on them that the composer marked the date of the start of work on the opera.
• Tickets for the premiere of "Boris Godunov" were sold out in 4 days, despite their price, which was three times higher than usual.
• Foreign premieres of "Boris Godunov" and "Khovanshchina" were held in Paris - in 1908 and 1913, respectively.
• Apart from works Tchaikovsky, "Boris Godunov" is the most famous Russian opera, repeatedly staged on the largest stages.
• The famous Bulgarian opera singer Boris Hristov performed three roles at once in the recording of Boris Godunov in 1952: Boris, Varlaam and Pimen.
• Mussorgsky is the favorite composer of F.I. Chaliapin.
• Pre-revolutionary productions of "Boris Godunov" were few and short-lived, in three of them the title role was performed by F.I. Chaliapin. The work was truly appreciated only in Soviet times. Since 1947, the opera has been staged at the Bolshoi Theatre, since 1928 at the Mariinsky Theatre, and both editions are in the theatre's current repertoire.

• The grandmother of Modest Petrovich, Irina Yegorovna, was a serf. Alexei Grigorievich Mussorgsky married her, already having three joint children, among whom was the composer's father.
• Modi's parents wanted him to join the military. His grandfather and great-grandfather were guards officers, his father, Pyotr Alekseevich, also dreamed about this. But due to a dubious origin, a military career was not available to him.
• The Mussorgskys are the Smolensk branch of the royal Rurik family.
• Probably, the internal conflict that tormented Mussorgsky all his life was also based on the class contradiction: coming from a wealthy noble family, he spent his childhood among the peasants of his estate, and the blood of the serf people flowed in his own veins. It is the people that are the main protagonist of both great operas of the composer. This is the only character to whom he treats with absolute sympathy and compassion.
• From Mussorgsky's biography we know that the composer remained a bachelor all his life, even his friends left no evidence of the composer's amorous adventures. There were rumors that in his youth he lived with a tavern singer who ran away with another, cruelly breaking his heart. But it is not known for certain whether this story actually happened. The version about the composer's love for Nadezhda Petrovna Opochinina, who was 18 years older than him, and to whom he dedicated many of his works, also remained unconfirmed.
• Mussorgsky is the third most performed Russian opera composer.
• "Boris Godunov" is shown in the theaters of the world more often than Massenet's "Werther", " Manon Lesko» Puccini or any opera « Rings of the Nibelung» Wagner.
• It was Mussorgsky's work that inspired I. Stravinsky, who, being a student of N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov, did not recognize his edits in Boris Godunov.
• Among the foreign followers of the composer - C. Debussy and M. Ravel.
• Musoryanin is a nickname worn by the composer among friends. He was also called Modinka.

• In Russia, "Khovanshchina" was first performed in 1897, performed by the Russian Private Opera S.I. Mamontov. And only in 1912 it was staged at the Bolshoi and Mariinsky theaters.
• In the Soviet years, the Mikhailovsky Theater of St. Petersburg was named after M.P. Mussorgsky. After the reconstruction and the return of the historical name, several bars from the introduction to Khovanshchina (Dawn on the Moscow River) sound like bells in the theater as a tribute to the great composer.
• Both of Mussorgsky's operas require the performance of a significantly expanded orchestra in order to accurately convey the expressiveness of the music.
• "Sorochinsky Fair" was finished by C. Cui. This production was the last opera premiere of the Russian Empire 12 days before the revolution.
• The first serious attack of delirium tremens overtook the composer as early as 1865. Tatyana Pavlovna Mussorgskaya, the wife of Filaret's brother, insisted that Modest Petrovich move to their estate. He was taken out, but he never fully recovered from his illness. Having left his relatives for St. Petersburg, without which he could not live, the composer did not leave his addiction.
• Mussorgsky died 16 days later than Emperor Alexander II, who was killed by terrorists in St. Petersburg.
• The composer bequeathed the rights to publish his works to the famous philanthropist T.I. Filippov, who repeatedly helped him. It was he who paid for the worthy funeral of Modest Petrovich at the Tikhvin cemetery of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra.

Creativity Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky

First published work polka "Ensign"- saw the light when its author was only 13 years old. At 17, he wrote two scherzos, sketches of further works of a large form did not develop into full-fledged works. Since 1857, Mussorgsky has been writing songs and romances, most of which are on folk themes. This was unusual for a secular musician of those years. The first attempts to write operas remained unfinished - this and " Salambo"according to G. Flaubert, and" Marriage» according to N.V. Gogol. The music for "Salambo" will be completely included in the composition of the only opera completed by the composer - "Boris Godunov".

Mussorgsky's biography says that Mussorgsky begins to study his main work in 1868. He wrote the libretto of all his large-form works himself, the text of Godunov was based on the tragedy of A.S. Pushkin, and the authenticity of the events was checked against the "History of the Russian State" by N.M. Karamzin. According to Modest Petrovich, in the original idea of ​​the opera there were two main actors - the people and the tsar. In a year, the work was completed and presented to the court of the directorate of the imperial theaters. The composer's innovative, non-academic and in many ways revolutionary work shocked the members of the bandmaster's committee. The formal reason for refusing to stage " Boris Godunov was in the absence of a central women's party. This is how an amazing precedent in the history of opera was born - two editions, and in terms of meaning - two operas for one plot.

The second edition was ready by 1872, a bright female character appeared in it - Marina Mniszek, a magnificent part for mezzo-soprano, a Polish act was added and a love line of False Dmitry and Marina, the finale was reworked. Despite this, the Mariinsky Theater again rejected the opera. The situation was ambiguous - many excerpts from "Boris Godunov" had already been performed by singers at concerts, the audience received this music well, and the theater management remained indifferent. Thanks to the support of the Mariinsky Opera Company, in particular, the singer Yu.F. Platonova, who insisted on performing the work for her benefit performance, the opera was released on January 27, 1874.

I.A. performed in the title part. Melnikov, one of the outstanding vocalists of his time. The audience went on a rampage and called the composer about 20 times to bow, criticism was expressed both with restraint and negatively. In particular, Mussorgsky was accused of portraying the people as an uncontrollable crowd of drunken, oppressed and desperate, absolutely stupid, simple and worthless people. For 8 years of repertory life, the opera was shown only 15 times.

In 1867, in 12 days, Modest Petrovich wrote a musical picture " Midsummer Night on Bald Mountain”, which was never performed during his lifetime and was remade by him many times. In the 1870s, the author turned to instrumental and vocal compositions. Thus were born Pictures from the exhibition”, “Songs and Dances of Death”, cycle “Without the Sun”.

His second historical opera, folk musical drama " Khovanshchina”, Mussorgsky began to write even before the premiere of “Boris Godunov”. The composer completely created the libretto himself, without relying on literary primary sources. It is based on the real events of 1682, when Russian history was also going through a turning point: there was a split not only in the political, but also in the spiritual spheres. The actors of the opera are the archery chief Ivan Khovansky with his unlucky son, and the favorite of Princess Sophia, Prince Golitsyn, and the Old Believers schismatics. The characters are burned with passions - love, a thirst for power and intoxication with permissiveness. The work stretched out for many years - illnesses, depressions, periods of hard drinking ... "Khovanshchina" was already being completed by N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov immediately after the death of its author. In 1883 he offered it to the Mariinsky Theatre, but was flatly refused. Mussorgsky's masterpiece was first performed in an amateur music circle...

Simultaneously with Khovanshchina, the composer wrote the opera Sorochinskaya Fair", which remained only in drafts. His last compositions were several pieces for piano.

Mussorgsky's music in cinema

The melodies of "Nights on Bald Mountain" and "Pictures at an Exhibition" are popular all over the world and are often used in films. Among the famous films where the music of M.P. Mussorgsky:

• "The Simpsons", TV series (2007-2016)
• "Tree of Life" (2011)
• "Burn After Reading" (2008)
• "The Client is Always Dead", TV series (2003)
• "Dracula 2000" (2000)
• The Big Lebowski (1998)
• "Lolita" (1997)
• "Natural Born Killers" (1994)
• "Death in Venice" (1971)

Biopic there is only one about genius - "Mussorgsky" by G. Roshal, released in 1950. In the post-war decade, several films were made about the great Russian composers, this one can be called the most successful. Magnificent in the title role of A.F. Borisov. He managed to create the image of Mussorgsky, as his contemporaries described him - generous, open, sensitive, fickle, carried away. This role was awarded the State Prize of the USSR. V.V. N. Cherkasov played Stasov in the film, and L. Orlova played the singer Platonova.

Among the screen adaptations of the composer's operas and recordings of theatrical performances, we note:

• Khovanshchina, staged by L. Baratov at the Mariinsky Theatre, recorded in 2012, starring: S. Aleksashkin, V. Galuzin, V. Vaneev, O. Borodina;
• Boris Godunov, directed by A. Tarkovsky at the Covent Garden Theatre, recorded in 1990, starring: R. Lloyd, O. Borodina, A. Steblyanko;
• "Khovanshchina", staged by B. Large at the Vienna Opera, recorded in 1989, starring: N. Gyaurov, V. Atlantov, P. Burchuladze, L. Semchuk;
• Boris Godunov, staged by L. Baratov at the Bolshoi Theatre, recorded in 1978, starring: E. Nesterenko, V. Piavko, V. Yaroslavtsev, I. Arkhipova;
• "Khovanshchina", film-opera by V. Stroeva, 1959, starring: A. Krivchenya, A. Grigoriev, M. Reizen, K. Leonova;
• Boris Godunov, film-opera by V. Stroeva, 1954, starring A. Pirogov, G. Nelepp, M. Mikhailov, L. Avdeeva.

On the innovative nature of his music M.P. Mussorgsky repeatedly mentioned in his letters. Time proved the validity of this definition: in the 20th century, composers began to widely use the same techniques that once seemed anti-musical even to such of his contemporaries as Tchaikovsky and Rimsky-Korsakov. Modest Petrovich was a genius. But the Russian genius - with the blues, nervous exhaustion and the search for solace at the bottom of the bottle. His work brought the history, character and songs of the Russian people to the best world stages, establishing their unconditional cultural authority.

Video: watch a film about Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky

Born March 21, 1839 on the estate of his father, a poor landowner, in the village of Karevo, Toropetsky district (now Kuninsky district) in the Pskov region, died March 28, 1881 in St. Petersburg), Russian composer, member of the Mighty Handful. He spent his childhood on the estate of his parents; Mussorgsky wrote in his autobiography: "... familiarization with the spirit of folk life was the main impetus for musical improvisations before even the most elementary rules of playing the piano began to be familiarized." At the age of six, Mussorgsky began to study music under the guidance of his mother. In 1849 he entered the Peter and Paul School in St. Petersburg, in 1852-56 he studied at the School of Guards Ensigns. At the same time, he took music lessons from the pianist A. A. Gerke. In 1852, Mussorgsky's first work, the Ensign for Piano, was published. In 1856-57 he met A. S. Dargomyzhsky, V. V. Stasov and M. A. Balakirev, who had a profound influence on his general and musical development. Under the direction of Balakirev, Mussorgsky began to seriously study composition; having decided to devote himself to music, in 1858 he left military service. In the late 50s - early 60s. Mussorgsky wrote a number of romances and instrumental works, in which the peculiar features of his creative individuality were already manifested. In 1863-66 he worked on the opera "Salambo" (based on the novel of the same name by G. Flaubert, not finished), which is distinguished by the drama of popular scenes. By the mid 60s. the worldview of Mussorgsky as a realist artist, close to the ideas of the revolutionary democrats, is taking shape. Turning to topical, socially pointed topics from folk life, he created songs and romances to the words of N. A. Nekrasov, T. G. Shevchenko, A. N. Ostrovsky and to his own texts (“Calistrat”, “Lullaby of Eremushka”, “ Sleep, sleep, peasant son”, “The Orphan”, “Seminarian”, etc.), which manifested his gift as a writer of everyday life, the ability to create vividly characteristic human images. The symphonic painting Night on Bald Mountain (1867), created based on folk tales and legends, is distinguished by the richness and richness of sound colors. A bold experiment was Mussorgsky's unfinished opera The Marriage (based on the unaltered text of N.V. Gogol's comedy, 1868), whose vocal parts are based on the direct implementation of the intonations of live colloquial speech.

All these works prepared Mussorgsky for the creation of one of his greatest creations - the opera "Boris Godunov" (based on the tragedy of A. S. Pushkin). The first edition of the opera (1869) was not accepted for staging by the directorate of the imperial theaters. After the revision, Boris Godunov was staged at the St. Petersburg Mariinsky Theater (1874), but with large cuts. In the 70s. Mussorgsky worked on a grandiose "folk musical drama" from the era of the archery riots of the late 17th century. Khovanshchina (libretto by M., begun in 1872), the idea of ​​which was suggested to him by V. V. Stasov, and the comic opera Sorochinskaya Fair (based on a story by Gogol, 1874-80). At the same time he created the vocal cycles Without the Sun (1874), Songs and Dances of Death (1875-77), the suite for piano Pictures at an Exhibition (1874), etc. In the last years of his life, Mussorgsky experienced a severe depression caused by the non-recognition of his creativity, loneliness, domestic and material difficulties. He died in poverty in the Nikolaev soldier's hospital. Khovanshchina, unfinished by the composer, was completed after his death by Rimsky-Korsakov; A. K. Lyadov, Ts. A. Kui, and others worked on the Sorochinskaya Fair. In 1896, Rimsky-Korsakov made a new version of Boris Godunov. In Soviet times, D. D. Shostakovich re-edited and orchestrated Boris Godunov and Khovanshchina (1959). An independent version of the completion of the "Sorochinsky Fair" belongs to V. Ya. Shebalin (1930).

A great humanist, democrat and truth lover, Mussorgsky strove to actively serve the people with his work. With great force, he repelled acute social conflicts, created powerful, dramatic images of the people who rebelled and fought for their rights. At the same time, Mussorgsky was a sensitive psychologist, an expert on the human soul. In the musical dramas "Boris Godunov" and "Khovanshchina" unusually dynamic, colorful mass folk scenes are combined with a variety of individual characteristics, psychological depth and complexity of individual images. In plots from the domestic past, Mussorgsky was looking for an answer to the burning questions of our time. “The past in the present is my task,” he wrote to Stasov while working on Khovanshchina. As a brilliant playwright, Mussorgsky also showed himself in works of small form. Some of his songs are like small dramatic scenes, in the center of which is a living and complete human image. Listening to the intonations of colloquial speech and the melodies of Russian folk songs, Mussorgsky created a deeply original, expressive musical language, distinguished by its sharp realistic character, subtlety and variety of psychological shades. His work had a great influence on many composers: S. S. Prokofiev, D. D. Shostakovich, L. Janachek, C. Debussy and others.

Biography

Following that, Mussorgsky wrote several romances and set to work on the music for Sophocles' tragedy Oedipus; the last work was not completed, and only one choir from the music for Oedipus, performed in a concert by K. N. Lyadov in 1861, was published among the composer's posthumous works. Mussorgsky first chose Flaubert's novel Salammbô for operatic adaptation, but soon left this work unfinished, as well as an attempt to write music for the plot of Gogol's The Marriage.

Fame Mussorgsky brought the opera Boris Godunov, staged at the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg in the city and immediately recognized as an outstanding work in some musical circles. This was already the second version of the opera, significantly changed dramaturgically after the repertory committee of the theater rejected its first version for being "unscenic". Over the next 10 years, "Boris Godunov" was given 15 times and then removed from the repertoire. Only at the end of November, "Boris Godunov" saw the light again - but already in the edition, redone by N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov, who "corrected" and re-instrumented the entire "Boris Godunov" at his discretion. In this form, the opera was staged on the stage of the Great Hall of the Musical Society (the new building of the Conservatory) with the participation of members of the Society of Musical Meetings. Firm Bessel and Co. in St. Petersburg. by this time had released a new clavier of Boris Godunov, in the preface to which Rimsky-Korsakov explains that the reasons that prompted him to undertake this alteration were the supposedly “bad texture” and “poor orchestration” of the author’s version of Mussorgsky himself. In Moscow, "Boris Godunov" was staged for the first time at the Bolshoi Theater in the city. In our time, interest in the author's editions of "Boris Godunov" is being revived.

Portrait by Repin

In 1875, Mussorgsky began the dramatic opera (“folk musical drama”) “Khovanshchina” (according to the plan of V.V. Stasov), while simultaneously working on a comic opera based on the plot of Gogol’s “Sorochinsky Fair”. Mussorgsky almost managed to finish the music and text of Khovanshchina - but, with the exception of two fragments, the opera was not instrumented; the latter was done by N. Rimsky-Korsakov, who at the same time finished Khovanshchina (again, with his own adaptations) and adapted it for the stage. The firm Bessel & Co. published the score of the opera and the clavier (g.). "Khovanshchina" was performed on the stage of the St. Petersburg Music and Drama Circle in the city, under the direction of S. Yu. Goldstein; on the stage of the Kononovsky Hall - in the city, by a private opera partnership; at Setov, in Kyiv, in the city. In 1960, the Soviet composer Dmitry Dmitrievich Shostakovich made his own version of the opera Khovanshchina, in which Mussorgsky's opera is now being staged all over the world.

For the Sorochinsky Fair, Mussorgsky managed to compose the first two acts, as well as for the third act: The Dream of Parubka (where he used a reworking of his symphonic fantasy Night on Bald Mountain, made for an unrealized collective work - the opera-ballet Mlada), Dumku Parasi and Gopak. The opera is staged in the editorial office of the outstanding musician Vissarion Yakovlevich Shebalin.

Mussorgsky was an unusually impressionable, enthusiastic, soft-hearted and vulnerable person. For all his external compliance and pliability, he was extremely firm in everything that concerned his creative convictions. Addiction to alcohol, which progressed strongly in the last decade of his life, acquired a destructive character for Mussorgsky's health, his life and the intensity of his work. As a result, after a series of failures in the service and the final dismissal from the ministry, Mussorgsky was forced to live on odd jobs and thanks to the support of friends.

Creativity belongs to a group of musical figures who strove - on the one hand - for formalized realism, on the other hand - for a colorful and poetic disclosure of words, texts and moods through music, flexibly following them. Mussorgsky's national thinking, as a composer, comes through both in the ability to handle folk songs, and in the very warehouse of his music, in its melodic, harmonic and rhythmic features, and finally - in the choice of subjects, mainly from Russian life. Mussorgsky is a hater of routine, for him there are no authorities in music; he paid little attention to the rules of musical grammar, seeing in them not the provisions of science, but only a collection of composing techniques of previous eras. Mussorgsky everywhere gave himself up to his ardent fantasy, everywhere he strove for novelty. Humorous music generally succeeded Mussorgsky, and in this genre he is diverse, witty and resourceful; one has only to recall his fairy tale about the "Goat", the story of the "Seminarian" pounding Latin, in love with the priest's daughter, "Picking Mushrooms" (May's text), "Feast".

Mussorgsky rarely dwells on "pure" lyrical themes, and they are not always given to him (his best lyrical romances are "Night", to the words of Pushkin, and "Jewish Melody", to the words of May); on the other hand, Mussorgsky's work is widely manifested in those cases when he turns to Russian peasant life. The following songs of Mussorgsky are noted for their rich coloring: "Kalistrat", "Lullaby of Eremushka" (words by Nekrasov), "Sleep, sleep, peasant son" (from Ostrovsky's "Voevoda"), "Gopak" (from Shevchenko's "Gaidamaks"), "Svetik Savishna "And" Mischievous "(both the latter - to the words of Mussorgsky himself) and many others. others; Mussorgsky very successfully found here a truthful and deeply dramatic musical expression for that heavy, hopeless grief that is hidden under the external humor of the lyrics.

A strong impression is made by the expressive recitation of the songs “Orphan” and “Forgotten” (based on the plot of the famous painting by V.V. Vereshchagin).

In such a seemingly narrow field of music as "romances and songs", Mussorgsky managed to find completely new, original tasks, and at the same time apply new peculiar techniques for their implementation, which was vividly expressed in his vocal paintings from childhood life, under under the general title "Children's" (text by Mussorgsky himself), in 4 romances under the general title "Songs and Dances of Death" ( -; words by Golenishchev-Kutuzov; "Trepak" - a picture of a tipsy peasant freezing in a forest, in a snowstorm; "Lullaby "draws a mother at the bedside of a dying child; the other two: "Serenade" and "Commander"; all are very colorful and dramatic), in "King Saul" (for a male voice with piano accompaniment; text by Mussorgsky himself), in "The Defeat of Sennacherib" ( for choir and orchestra; words by Byron), in Joshua, successfully built on the original. Jewish topics.

Mussorgsky's specialty is vocal music. He is an exemplary reciter, grasping the slightest bends of the word; in his works, he often gives a wide place to the monologue-recitative warehouse of presentation. Akin to Dargomyzhsky in terms of his talent, Mussorgsky shares his views on musical drama inspired by Dargomyzhsky's opera The Stone Guest. However, unlike Dargomyzhsky, in his mature compositions Mussorgsky overcomes the pure "illustrativeness" of the music passively following the text, which is characteristic of this opera.

Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov, written based on the drama of the same name by Pushkin (and also under the great influence of Karamzin's interpretation of this plot), is one of the best works of world musical theater, whose musical language and dramaturgy already belong to a new genre that took shape in the 19th century in various countries - to the genre of musical stage drama, on the one hand, breaking with many routine conventions of the then traditional opera house, on the other hand, striving to reveal the dramatic action primarily by musical means. At the same time, both author's editions of "Boris Godunov" (1869 and 1874), differing significantly from each other in terms of dramaturgy, are essentially two equivalent author's solutions to the same plot. Especially innovative for its time was the first edition (which was not put on stage until the middle of the 20th century), which was very different from the then-dominated routine opera canons. That is why, during the years of Mussorgsky's life, the opinion prevailed that his "Boris Godunov" was distinguished by an "unsuccessful libretto", "many rough edges and blunders."

Prejudices of this kind were in many ways characteristic primarily of Rimsky-Korsakov, who claimed that Mussorgsky was inexperienced in instrumentation, although it was sometimes not devoid of color and a successful variety of orchestral colors. This opinion was typical for Soviet textbooks of musical literature. In reality, Mussorgsky's orchestral writing simply did not fit into the canvas that suited Rimsky-Korsakov in the main. Such a misunderstanding of Mussorgsky's orchestral thinking and style (to which he, indeed, came almost self-taught) was explained by the fact that the latter was strikingly unlike the lushly decorative aesthetics of orchestral presentation, characteristic of the second half of the 19th century - and, especially, of Rimsky-Korsakov himself. Unfortunately, the conviction cultivated by him (and his followers) about the alleged "shortcomings" of Mussorgsky's musical style for a long time - almost a century ahead - began to dominate the academic tradition of Russian music.

Even more skeptical attitude of colleagues and contemporaries touched Mussorgsky's next musical drama - the opera "Khovanshchina" on the theme of historical events in Russia at the end of the 17th century (split and streltsy revolt), written by Mussorgsky on his own script and text. He wrote this work with long breaks, and by the time of his death it remained unfinished (among the currently existing editions of the opera, performed by other composers, the orchestration by Shostakovich and the completion of the last act of the opera, made by Stravinsky, can be considered the closest to the original). Unusual and the idea of ​​this work, and its scale. Compared to Boris Godunov, Khovanshchina is not just a drama of one historical person (through which the philosophical themes of power, crime, conscience and retribution are revealed), but already a kind of “impersonal” historiosophical drama in which, in the absence of a pronounced “ central” character (characteristic of the standard operatic dramaturgy of that time), whole layers of folk life are revealed and the theme of the spiritual tragedy of the whole people, which takes place when their traditional historical and way of life is broken, is raised. To emphasize this genre feature of the opera "Khovanshchina", Mussorgsky gave it the subtitle "folk musical drama".

Both Mussorgsky's musical dramas won a relatively quick worldwide recognition after the composer's death, and to this day they are among the most frequently performed works of Russian music all over the world (their international success was greatly facilitated by the admiring attitude of such composers as Debussy, Ravel, Stravinsky - as well as the entrepreneurial activities of Sergei Diaghilev, who staged them for the first time abroad at the beginning of the 20th century in his Russian Seasons in Paris). Nowadays, most of the world's opera houses strive to stage both Mussorgsky's operas in urtext editions that are as close as possible to the author's. At the same time, in different theaters there are different author's editions of Boris Godunov (either the first or the second).

Mussorgsky had little inclination towards music in "finished" forms (symphonic, chamber, etc.). Of Mussorgsky's orchestral works, in addition to those already mentioned, the Intermezzo (composed in, instrumented in) deserves attention, built on a theme reminiscent of the music of the 18th century, and published among Mussorgsky's posthumous works, with Rimsky-Korsakov's instrumentation. The orchestral fantasy Night on Bald Mountain (the material of which was subsequently included in the opera Sorochinskaya Fair) was also completed and instrumented by N. Rimsky-Korsakov and performed with great success in St. Petersburg; this is a brightly colorful picture of the "coven of the spirits of darkness" and "the magnificence of Chernobog."

Another outstanding work of Mussorgsky is Pictures at an Exhibition, written for piano in 1874, as musical illustrations-episodes for watercolors by V. A. Hartmann. The form of this work is a “through” suite-rondo with sections soldered together, where the main theme-refrain (“Promenade”) expresses the change of moods when walking from one painting to another, and the episodes between this theme are the very images of the paintings in question. This work has repeatedly inspired other composers to create its orchestral editions, the most famous of which belongs to Maurice Ravel (one of Mussorgsky's most staunch admirers).

In the 19th century, Mussorgsky's works were published by the firm V. Bessel and Co. in St. Petersburg; much was also published in Leipzig by the firm of MP Belyaev. In the 20th century, urtext editions of Mussorgsky's works in original versions began to appear, based on a thorough study of the original sources. The pioneer of such activity was the Russian musicologist P. Ya. Lamm, who for the first time published the urtext claviers Boris Godunov and Khovanshchina, the author's editions of all Mussorgsky's vocal and piano works.

The works of Mussorgsky, in many respects anticipating a new era, had a tremendous influence on the composers of the 20th century. The attitude to the musical fabric as an expressive extension of human speech and the coloristic nature of its harmonic language played an important role in the formation of the "impressionistic" style of C. Debussy and M. Ravel (by their own admission), Mussorgsky's style, dramaturgy and imagery greatly influenced creativity L. Janachek, I. Stravinsky, D. Shostakovich (characteristically, they are all composers of Slavic culture), A. Berg (the dramaturgy of his opera "Wozzeck" on the principle of "scene-fragment" is very close to "Boris Godunov"), O Messiaen and many others.

Major works

• "Boris Godunov" (1869, 2nd edition 1872)
• "Khovanshchina" (1872-80, completed by N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov, 1883)
• "Kalistrat",
• "Orphan"
• "Sorochinsky Fair" (1874-80, completed by Ts. A. Cui, 1916),
• satirical romances "Seminarian" and "Classic" (1870)
• vocal cycle "Children's" (1872),
• piano cycle "Pictures at an Exhibition" (1874),
• vocal cycle "Without the Sun" (1874),
• vocal cycle "Songs and Dances of Death" (1877)
• symphonic poem "Night on Bald Mountain"

Memory

Monument at the grave of Mussorgsky

Streets named after Mussorgsky in cities

Monuments to Mussorgsky in cities

• Karevo village

Other objects

• Ural State Conservatory in Yekaterinburg.
• Opera and ballet theater in St. Petersburg.
• Musical school in St. Petersburg.

see also

Bibliography

Antonina Vasilyeva. Russian labyrinth. Biography of M. P. Mussorgsky. Pskov regional printing house, 2008.

• Roerich N. K. Mussorgsky // Artists of Life. - Moscow: International Center of the Roerichs, 1993. - 88 p.
• V. V. Stasov, article in Vestnik Evropy (May and June).
• V. V. Stasov, "Perov and M." (“Russian Antiquity”, 1883, vol. XXXVIII, pp. 433-458);
• V. V. Stasov, "M. P. Mussorgsky. In memory of him ("Histor. Vestn.", 1886, March); his own, "In Memory of M." (St. Petersburg, 1885);
• V. Baskin, “M. P. M. Biographical. essay "(" Russ. Thought ", 1884, books 9 and 10; separately, M., 1887);
• S. Kruglikov, "M. and his" Boris Godunov ("Artist", 1890, No. 5);
• P. Trifonov, “Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky” (“Vestn. Evropy”, 1893, Dec.).
• Tumanina N., M. P. Mussorgsky, M. - L., 1939;
• Asafiev B.V., Izbr. works, vol. 3, M., 1954;
• Orlova A., Works and days of MP Mussorgsky. Chronicle of life and creativity, M., 1963
• Khubov G., Mussorgsky, M., 1969.
• Shlifshtein S. Mussorgsky. Artist. Time. Fate. M., 1975
• Rakhmanova M. Mussorgsky and his time. - Soviet music, 1980, No. 9-10
• MP Mussorgsky in the memoirs of his contemporaries. M., 1989

Links

• Mussorgsky Modest A site about Mussorgsky.
• Mussorgsky Modest A site about the life and work of the Russian composer.
• Mussorgsky Modest Creative portrait at Belcanto.Ru.

His mother gave him his first piano lessons.

In 1858 Modest Mussorgsky He retired to devote himself entirely to music.

“It is known that Mussorgsky listened attentively to peasant speech, went to the market for this purpose, went to the village, studying folk speech intonations. In a letter to C. Cui dated August 15, 1868, he remarks: “I watched the women and peasants, took out appetizing specimens. One man is a shard of Antony in Shakespeare's Caesar ... All this will come in handy for me, and women's copies are just a treasure. It’s always like this with me: I’ll notice some peoples, and then, on occasion, I’ll emboss.

Makhlina S., Semiotics of culture and art: a dictionary-reference book in two books. Book two, St. Petersburg, "Composer", 2003, p. 105.

A significant role in his work was played by his friendship with V.V. Stasov and a number of Russian composers.

M.P. Mussorgsky wrote to him: “Man is a social animal and cannot be otherwise; in the human masses, as in an individual person, there is a network of the finest features that elude the grasp, features untouched by anyone; to notice and study them with all your gut, to study and feed humanity with them, as with a healthy dish that has not yet been tried, that's the task! Delight and everlasting delight! (Letter to V.V. Stasov on September 3, 1872)”.

Lapshin I.I., Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky, in Almanac: Sounding Meanings, St. Petersburg, St. Petersburg State University Publishing House, 2007, p. 282.

Since the mid-1870s, the composer has been drinking heavily...

M.P. Mussorgsky does not reveal a special strength of faith in Russian progress, he wrote in 1875 I.E. Repin: "Let's go ahead. You lie, right there. Paper, book are gone, but we are there. While the people cannot check with their own eyes what is being cooked from it, until they themselves want something or that to be concocted with them - in the same place. All sorts of benefactors are much to become famous, to secure the glorification with documents, and the people groan, and in order not to groan, they famously get drunk and groan even more - in the same place.

Lapshin I.I., Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky, in Almanac: Sounding Meanings, St. Petersburg, St. Petersburg State University Publishing House, 2007, p. 313.

Now the gravestone of M.P. Mussorgsky is located in the Necropolis of Masters of Arts in the Alexander Nevsky Lavra in St. Petersburg, and the grave remained in the same place - at the so-called Tikhvin cemetery of the said Lavra.

After the death of the composer, his friend ON THE. Rimsky-Korsakov put in order and published all the works of M.P. Mussorgsky, but made corrections even to finished works, including the opera Boris Godunov (based on the drama of the same name by A.S. Pushkin). In the preface to the clavier of this opera, he explained that he wanted to correct the "bad texture" and "poor orchestration" of the author's version of N.P. Mussorgsky.

“My great disappointment in life is that I did not meet Mussorgsky. He died before my appearance in St. Petersburg. My grief. It's like missing the fateful train. You come to the station, and the train leaves before your eyes - forever!
But the memory of Mussorgsky was treated with love in this company. It has long been understood that Mussorgsky is a genius. No wonder Rimsky-Korsakov worked with purely religious zeal on Boris Godunov, Mussorgsky's greatest legacy. Many now press on Rimsky-Korsakov for the fact that he - de "distorted Mussorgsky." I am not a musician, but in my humble opinion, I consider this reproach deeply unfair. The material labor that Rimsky-Korsakov contributed to this work alone is amazing and unforgettable. Without this work, the world would probably still hardly recognize Boris Godunov to this day. Mussorgsky was modest: he did not think that Europe might be interested in his music. He was obsessed with music. He wrote because he could not help writing. He wrote always, everywhere. In a St. Petersburg tavern in Maly Yaroslavets, on Morskaya, one in a separate office drinks vodka and writes music.
On napkins, on abacuses, on greasy papers... The "rag-picker" was great. I chose everything that was music. The rag-picker is understanding. A cigarette butt, and he has a flavor. Well, he wrote so much in "Boris Godunov" that if we played it, as it was written by Mussorgsky, we would start at 4 o'clock in the afternoon and end at 3 o'clock in the morning. Rimsky-Korsakov understood and shortened it. But he took everything of value and kept it. Well, yes. There are errors.
Rimsky-Korsakov was a pure classic; he did not like dissonances, he did not feel them. No, rather, it felt painful. A parallel fifth or a parallel octave had already given him trouble. I remember him in Paris after Salome by Richard Strauss. After all, a person fell ill from Strauss's music! I met him after the performance in the cafe de la Paix - I literally fell ill. He spoke a little through his nose: “After all, this is an abomination. After all, it's disgusting. The body hurts from such music! Naturally, even in Mussorgsky he grimaced at something. In addition, Rimsky-Korsakov was a Petersburger and did not accept everything in Moscow.
But Mussorgsky was in spirit Moscow through and through. Of course, Petersburgers also deeply understood and felt people's Russia to the roots, but in Muscovites there was, perhaps, more everyday soil, "black earth". They, so to speak, also wore kosovorotkas ... In general, our musical classics in the depths of their souls, with all their admiration for Mussorgsky, all repelled somewhat from his too thick "realism" for them.

Chaliapin F.I., Literary heritage. Chaliapin's letters and Letters about his father, M., Art, 1960, p. 291-292.

Composer Georgy Sviridov: “Our greatest composer is, of course, Mussorgsky. A completely new language for the entire world of musical art, enriched with a powerful religious feeling, and even in the era when it had already begun to fade from world life, and from Russian life too. And suddenly - "Khovanshchina"! It's not just an opera, it's a prayer, it's a conversation with God. Only Dostoevsky and Tolstoy could think and feel like that.
The great disciples and followers of Mussorgsky - Rimsky-Korsakov in The Tale of the City of Kitezh and Rachmaninoff in the Vespers and the Liturgy continued the religious, Orthodox understanding of the world order. But Mussorgsky was the first to express it in Russia. His compositions are real religious art, but on the opera stage . His recitatives cannot be compared with those of Verdi. Verdi's recitatives are melodious, mechanical. For Mussorgsky, the recitative is the voice of a clergyman pronouncing divine, great words in their meaning, which have been spoken in Christian churches for two thousand years.
There is simplicity, childishness, and amazing depth in these words. After all Christ said, "Be like children." And it is not for nothing that Mussorgsky has a brilliant essay about children - "Children's". The soul of a child - pure, simple, inquiring, lives in this music. And the ability to penetrate into the human soul Mussorgsky is closest to Dostoevsky.
He did not recognize the operatic European musical conventions in the depiction of a person. Compared to the people of Wagner, Verdi, Gounod, his opera people are completely alive, spontaneous, mysterious, endless, like in Dostoevsky. And for Western composers, their heroes are, as it were, the heroes of Dumas, at best Schiller or Walter Scott. No, he does not have romanticism, not embellishment of the world, not simplification of it, but a spontaneous expression of life with all its complexity and infinity. In a word, its Russian feeling.
Then it was called musical realism. But the simplest life, with all his craving for realism, he did not let into music.
That is why his attempt with a recitative to Gogol's "Marriage" did not work out. Its content is too insignificant, so insignificant that Gogol himself was amazed at this insignificance, the vulgarity of life, everyday life. Mussorgsky, on the other hand, is the composer of tragic passions on which life stands and is based. He is the only true tragic composer. His "Boris Godunov" is much closer to the ancient Greek tragedies with their choirs than to the light and elegant European operatic art. "Boris Godunov", "Khovanshchina" - this is the music of the collapse of kingdoms, this is a musical prophecy of future revolutions. And at the same time it is an apology for Russian Orthodoxy. The ringing of bells hums in his operas! The ringing of a great tragedy, because the people who lose their faith perish. And those who have preserved or revived it will live to see the triumph of Christianity.
That's what Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky is. Descendant of Rurikovich. He died in an almshouse.
He was persecuted by liberals - Turgenev, Saltykov-Shchedrin.
Only the magazine "Citizen" (the most reactionary!) placed an obituary with the words: "The great composer died ..." But how strong he was in ideas, he was so weak in orchestration, he had it at the level of the 18th century.

Stanislav Kunyaev, "Let the darkness perish!" / in Sat: Georgy Sviridov in the memoirs of his contemporaries, M., "Young Guard", 2006, p. 249-251.

✿ღ✿✿ღ✿

The last days of the great Russian composer

Repin came to the Nikolaevsky military hospital to paint a portrait of Mussorgsky three more times. They didn't let him in for another session.

On a sunny morning on March 2, 1881, Ilya Repin walked through St. Petersburg in great confusion. On the eve of March 1, on the embankment of the Catherine Canal, the Narodnaya Volya killed Alexander II. The terrorist Ignatius Grinevitsky threw a homemade bomb under the feet of the emperor, mortally wounding both him and himself, as well as one of the guardsmen accompanying the sovereign and a fourteen-year-old passer-by boy. The capital was shocked by what had happened, people were afraid to leave their homes. But Repin, who had recently arrived in St. Petersburg from Moscow, was more worried about another circumstance ...

The fact is that the other day he read in a Moscow newspaper an article about the illness of the composer Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky. Next came a letter from the critic Stasov. It said that Musoryanin was completely ill, the doctors found signs of either epilepsy or delirium tremens, a diseased liver, a completely worn out heart (which is not surprising given Modinka's lifestyle), and even a bad cold.

Mussorgsky was the artist's favorite friend. In the early 1870s, they met at the same Vladimir Stasov, and the master took on the role of guardian of young talents. At Stasov they most often met. Sometimes Mussorgsky came to Repin when he was working and entertained him by playing the piano. Ilya Efimovich smiled, remembering that it was especially good for him to paint pictures under "Khovanshchina". And how much wine was drunk after such musical and artistic sessions! How intoxicating it was during these meetings to talk about people and feelings, about the funny and tragic, about strange and beautiful forms of art! Ilya was terribly bored without these conversations and without Modina's music when he left for France for three whole years.

And in the last couple of years, Repin rarely saw Musoryanin, as close friends called the composer. I heard from them that they, too, met with him only out of necessity, since these meetings invariably left a painful impression: Modya sank down, became sloppy, flabby, and was already reaching for a glass in the morning. If anyone could influence him, it was Stasov, under him Mussorgsky pulled himself together and even looked quite respectable. But not a century for Vladimir Vasilyevich to babysit Modya.

The day after the disturbing letter from Stasov arrived, Repin was getting ready to go on the road: he was already supposed to go to the capital to the Ninth Exhibition of the Wanderers, but now he decided to hurry up and paint a portrait of a friend.

While the preparations were going on, an inner voice kept telling Ilya Efimovich that this idea was not good: it coincided more than once that after finishing the portrait, the person portrayed by Repin died. The “victims” of his brush have already become most of the men who posed for the “Barge haulers on the Volga”, and the writer Alexei Pisemsky. Subsequently, the mystical pattern was confirmed more than once: the surgeon Pirogov, the writer Garshin, Prime Minister Stolypin - they all died shortly after they appeared on Repin's canvas ...

However, Ilya Efimovich did not listen to the voice and hurried to the train. Leaving the station, he walked along Slonovaya Street to the Nikolaevsky military hospital and asked the attendant where the ward of the retired guard lieutenant Mussorgsky was. In a common ward with light walls and lime-smeared windows, Modest Petrovich's bed, fortunately, was separated by screens - thanks to Dr. Bertenson. Repin timidly squeezed his way behind the partition and saw a friend who was lying down reading a thick book. “About instrumentation, Hector Berlioz” - Ilya Efimovich saw the title and thought: it was not otherwise that Modya decided to fill in the gaps in his musical education.

“Garbage man, you look great! When are you checking out?" Repin exclaimed with exaggerated vivacity. In fact, the appearance of the patient did not inspire optimism. “It is incredible what this excellently educated guards officer, witty interlocutor and inexhaustible pun has turned into. Where is that childishly cheerful boot with a red potato nose, dressed to the brim with a bon vivant - perfumed, refined, squeamish? Is it really him? - thought Repin, looking with pain at Mussorgsky's bluish swollen face, his matted hair, shaking hands and - yes, the invariably red nose, which Modya had frostbite in his military youth.

Mussorgsky, putting down the book, feverishly began to tell how the singer Darya Mikhailovna Leonova - the one who sheltered him for the whole summer at her dacha - took him to a musical evening a couple of weeks ago. There he accompanied on the piano and suddenly lost consciousness, but quickly came to his senses and even got home himself, but he could not fall asleep - he was pounding from fear, from terrible visions, and sweat poured like a river, and as soon as he lay down, suffocation began. In this state, he ended up in the hospital. But now it seems to be better.

Soon he will return to work and finish both Khovanshchina, and Sorochinskaya Fair, and Salambo, and Marriage, abandoned in his youth. Yes, and Boris Godunov needs to be worked on, it is not for nothing that the critics are dissatisfied with the opera. Even a colleague in The Mighty Handful, Caesar Cui, called Godunov an immature work, and its author a "composer not strict enough with himself." But this is simply because Cui did not understand Godunov - few people understood him at all. It's a shame, of course - Mussorgsky's eyes habitually filled with tears - well, God be our Caesar's judge. But here's the kind of embroidered shirt and warm robe he gave - and Modest puffed out his chest, demonstrating the crimson lapels of the once expensive green robe.

In these same dressing gown and shirt, Repin seated Mussorgsky in an armchair by the window to pose. The weather then, and in the next three days that the artist came to the hospital for sessions, was beautiful, the light fell perfectly. Since Ilya Efimovich did not grab the easel, he himself settled down with the canvas on the hospital table and for the entire first hour mercilessly tormented Modya: turn around, freeze, look here. And then he let me just sit and think about his own. It was then that Repin caught that very look of Mussorgsky, at the same time childish, naive, trusting and somehow aloof. It was as if the comrade knew what would happen to him very soon, he said goodbye and forgave himself and his strange life, in which he so unreasonably disposed of his talent, where there was so much disappointment and loneliness ...

Then I remembered how they were already ten and thirteen years old. Their parents take them to St. Petersburg, to the famous throughout Russia and one of the oldest in the country, Petrishule - the Main German School of St. Peter, on Nevsky Prospekt. The picture in the kaleidoscope has changed, and now they and Kitosha enter the School of Guards Ensigns, but how could it be otherwise: a family tradition, in the Mussorgsky family all men are connected with the army. But Modest served only a couple of years, and when he was nineteen, he left military affairs for the sake of music, which, by the way, he never professionally studied.

For many years he and his brother were inseparable. Kitushka was always shy in society, unlike the dandy Modi: the more people around, the brighter he shone. Effortlessly he could charm, charm, fall in love with himself. Ladies captivated with a beautiful baritone and florid compliments, men admired with erudition, successful pun, subtle witticism. Making friends with interesting people, Modya immediately involved Kitushka in his circle.

When serfdom was abolished in 1861, Modest and Filaret, like all Russian landowners, had to deal with an extremely difficult task - to receive land payment from the former serfs, to deal with renting and hiring now free labor. Modest believed that, as progressive and noble people, they should give the peasants their allotments and not demand compensation payments. But the gentle, usually compliant Kitushka unexpectedly showed firmness of character and categorically disagreed with his brother.

Modest Petrovich was well aware that he understood absolutely nothing in the economy, and if he took up any land and money issue, at best he found himself without profit, and more often at a loss. While his mother was alive, she sent fifty or a hundred rubles, but the money instantly evaporated: all his life Mussorgsky wandered around rented apartments, sometimes he existed on credit. He did not know how to save money, and the older he got, the more he drank. “Yes, drunkenness is a ruinous vice. And in my case - probably fatal, ”mussorgsky thought once again in recent days and crossed himself.

Now, in the hospital, he desperately missed his brother. And in joy and in trouble, he always lacked Kitushka's side. And he had already left St. Petersburg for many years to the estate of his wife, the wealthy landowner Tatyana Balakshina, and there he happily plunged into family life. Remembering Quito, Mussorgsky, as usual, thought of Arseny Golenishchev-Kutuzov, who became his second brother for several years.

The twenty-five-year-old count entered the circle of his friends and became a regular participant in the traditional musical gatherings at Stasov's. When they met, Modest was already thirty-four, but despite the almost ten-year difference in age, he and Arseny immediately became friends - so much so that they could not live a day apart. Together they composed the vocal cycles "Without the Sun", "Songs and Dances of Death", the ballad "Forgotten", the romance "Vision". Golenishchev-Kutuzov wrote the words, Mussorgsky wrote the music. The co-author of the libretto of the Sorochinskaya Fair is also Arseny Arkadevich.

When Modest was kicked out of his apartment for non-payment, he settled with Golenishchev-Kutuzov on Shpalernaya. Now, sitting in a hospital room, Mussorgsky had no doubt: this was one of the happiest periods in his life, although the usual disorder reigned in his work. After all, he did not finish any of his great musical works, he simply could not bring himself to get together and bring the matter to an end: either he was distracted by a new idea, or he suddenly lost inspiration and hurried to his favorite tavern "Small Yaroslavets".

Suddenly Modest shifted uneasily in his chair, thinking of "Boris Godunov": "Who will take care of this if I die?" (The opera nevertheless saw the light of the day and was staged at the Mariinsky Theatre, but clearly needed editing.) And then he reassured himself: “Rimsky-Korsakov is always eager to smooth and comb my Godunov, he will succeed.”

And for some reason he immediately remembered how they parted with Golenishchev-Kutuzov: he, like his brother Kitushka, got married and left for the village, taking up boring chores incomprehensible to Mussorgsky. They remained friends, but being friends at a distance is mortal longing, and Modest needed people dear to his heart to call them by cozy home names, walk together along the embankments and the Summer Garden, laugh at a good joke, drink wine, sob on his shoulder after frank confessions . But in his life every year such comrades became less and less.


Mussorgsky was forced to admit that the departure of his friends not only inflicted severe spiritual wounds on him. Simultaneously with the realization that it is impossible to return a person and that with this hole in the heart one will have to somehow pull until one's own death, an understanding came: pain can give birth to beautiful music.

This happened after the death of Mussorgsky's beloved friend, Viktor Hartmann. Modest met him all at the same Stasov at the very end of the 1860s and immediately felt: this talented artist and the soul of any company is similar to himself not only in artistry and wit, but also in an unhappy creative fate. A Frenchman by father, an orphan from the age of four, Hartmann tried to revive the Old Russian style in painting and architecture. But all of Victor's architectural works either remained at the project stage or were short-lived, like, for example, the exhibition pavilions, which were destroyed after the closing of the vernissage. In painting, things were also not very successful, Hartmann was very worried, but when meeting with friends he still gushed with jokes and never complained about the increased pain in his heart.

The last time Modest saw Victor was in the summer of 1873, when a friend came to St. Petersburg from his Kireevo estate near Moscow. They walked together after the concert along Furshtatskaya Street and, as always, excitedly shared the news: about the latest changes in life, about what admired or disappointed mutual acquaintances, about the Russian theme in creativity. Hartmann invariably called Mussorgsky "divine", and he was embarrassed and blushed every time like a schoolboy. And suddenly, literally in mid-sentence, Victor turned terribly pale, began to convulsively gasp for air and, clutching his heart, leaned back against the wall of the house.

Completely bewildered and not knowing how to help, Mussorgsky, with trembling hands, unbuttoned his friend's shirt collar. And when he caught his breath a little, he dragged him to his beloved "Maly Yaroslavets" to drink tea - hoping that Victor would feel better and more interesting drinks would come to replace the tea. However, that evening, the friends did not have a chance to continue the fun: Hartmann admitted for the first time that his days were numbered ... He complained, how damn insulting it is - after all, nothing really has been done in life! Soon Viktor Alexandrovich was gone.

About a year after his death, Stasov organized an exhibition of Hartmann's work, which presented the fruits of his fifteen years of labor - paintings and drawings made during trips to Europe and Russia. Having visited the vernissage, Mussorgsky decided on a rather unusual experiment, having decided to write a collection of plays based on the work of Hartmann. This is how “Pictures at an Exhibition” appeared - but they, like almost everything that the composer undertook, remained unfinished. Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov offered him more than once to edit and polish Pictures.

Mussorgsky's thoughts turned to his fellow composers. When Fashion was not yet twenty, he "from the first word" made friends with the physician Alexander Borodin, who wrote music in his spare time and soon became famous as a great composer. Modest Petrovich himself was already composing plays, so they had something to discuss.

Then the friends appeared like-minded people - Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Caesar Cui. Mily Balakirev headed this community of the “new Russian musical school”. Vladimir Stasov, the most senior and respected member of the company, aptly called the group of innovators "a small but already mighty bunch of Russian musicians." “And after all, we were not just a group of populist composers, it was a wonderful friendship,” thought Mussorgsky gloomily. - How unfortunate that after a few years Balakirev moved away, and the rest quarreled over petty squabbles! The bunch turned out to be not so powerful, they could not forgive each other for weaknesses and mistakes. Modest Petrovich again felt a sharp mental pain, as if the discord with his colleagues happened only yesterday. I really wanted to drink in order to get rid of the spasm in my heart and again enter a state where an invisible kind hand takes the eternal needle out of my chest, and life seems understandable, serene and endless. Repin felt his friend's excitement and decided to distract him:

Modya, why were you called Modest?

It was only now that Mussorgsky noticed how uncomfortable it was for Repin to work without an easel. But Ilya seemed not to pay attention to the inconvenience - the portrait must have turned out well. Mussorgsky already knew what a friend was like when a picture was not given to him. Take, for example, the portrait of Turgenev, in which the writer came out as a boring tired old man, and all because his cordial friend Viardot rejected the first - very successful - sketches and forced Ivan Sergeevich to pose from a different angle.

- Modest in translation from Latin - modest. Mother's idea, she gave names a grandiose meaning, - Mussorgsky answered after a little internal struggle. He could not talk about his beloved mother without tears.

Who is the humble one here? Yes, you are with us, Modya, bon vivant and heartthrob! Wait, do you remember the singer Sashenka Purgold, Dargomyzhsky's student? She adored you, she just pursued you. I considered you a genius, almost a celestial, devoid of flaws.

I know that all of you, led by Stasov, were gossiping that she was dragging me and dreaming of marrying me. Envious people!

Forgive me, Musoryanin, but I heard with my own ears how Sasha, after the premiere of Godunov at the Mariinsky, swore to you that she would name her son Boris - in honor of your great opera!

And since at that time she was already married to another and pregnant, she soon fulfilled her promise! Mussorgsky remarked caustically. But I'm an old bachelor, you know...

“Yes, I don’t know anything about you, Modinka,” Repin thought with a sigh. He was always amazed at how, with his openness and sociability, Mussorgsky managed to hide his relationship with women from everyone. Modya did it masterfully, leaving absolutely no traces.

Among friends, there was a half-guess-half-gossip about how twenty-year-old Modya became interested in a tavern singer and secretly lived with her in a rented apartment - happily, but not for long. Until the sweetheart ran away with another, forcing Mussorgsky to suffer cruelly. And although Modya never, even when drunk, remembered her, Repin understood: if not this, then another story must have happened, because of which Mussorgsky, a warm and loving man, did not start a family and a home.

Relations with the singer Daria Leonova were also a mystery to the composer's friends. Recently, she has been very protective of Modest, even settled in her dacha. Throughout the summer of 1879, Musoryanin and Leonova traveled around the south of Russia with concerts, and Darya Mikhailovna performed Mussorgsky's newly composed "Flea" - as if this little thing was written for her contralto, and not for bass. However, Leonova was much older than Modi, and besides, she was not free. So who knows, maybe their connection is nothing more than friendship.

Repin recalled that two other ladies with whom Modest had a special relationship, Nadezhda Petrovna Opochinina and Maria Vasilievna Shilovskaya, were much older than him. But as the French say, "the heart has no wrinkles"... The Opochinins were Modi's friends and distant relatives. He settled with them for three whole years in the Engineering Castle, when Kitosha got married and left St. Petersburg. Nadezhda Petrovna, a sensitive, intelligent, tasteful woman, loved to carry on with Modest, who was eighteen years her junior, endless conversations about lofty matters. Mussorgsky dedicated several romances to Nadezhda Petrovna, and wrote a poignant Tomb Letter for her death. Repin saw how hard Modya was going through the death of Opochinina. What is this if not love? But does it matter now...

As for Shilovskaya, Ilya Efimovich knew: she was a real femme fatal, one of the most beautiful and gifted women of her time, the owner of a divine soprano, a close friend of Dargomyzhsky and Glinka. Shilovskaya and Mussorgsky also have a big age difference. And although the coquettish Maria Vasilievna misled everyone, always reduced her years, Modya, no matter how young she was, was a boy for her, and Shilovskaya must have hurt the poor fellow too badly when he opened her heart. Poor Garbage Man!

Repin involuntarily began to sing a romance that Mussorgsky dedicated to her:

What are the words of love to you?
You will call nonsense.
What are my tears to you?
And you will not understand tears.
Leave me dreams.
Not a word or a look
warmth of the heart
Do not poison.

Mussorgsky looked at Ilya Efimovich reproachfully: he was mercilessly false. “Leave me dreams ...” - what's the point in them? Is it all over? How strange life is lived! He wanted to sob, scream at the top of his voice to make the cursed thoughts disappear from his head. But he only closed his eyes and asked the artist to continue tomorrow.

Repin came to the Nikolaevsky military hospital to paint a portrait of Mussorgsky three more times. He was not allowed to the next session... Modest Petrovich became much worse, fever and delirium began. They said that the cause was a bottle of cognac, which was secretly brought into the ward by a hospital attendant bribed by Musoryanin. Or maybe it's just time to leave this world. On March 16, Mussorgsky died.

A few days earlier, Pavel Tretyakov had learned from Stasov that Repin had painted a brilliant portrait of the dying Mussorgsky, truly his finest work. He immediately sent the artist four hundred rubles for the painting. Repin did not take the money: “They are not mine, give them to the needs of the Musoryanin. Or...spend on his funeral."

The same Stasov informed Ilya Efimovich that two days before Modi's death, he and Daria Leonova brought Tertii Ivanovich Filippov, a high-ranking official and Slavophile known throughout Russia, to him. Filippov often helped Mussorgsky with money, got him a job and did not allow him to be fired. An important paper was signed in the hospital: Mussorgsky sold Filippov the copyright to all his compositions so that he would publish them.

City music school №2. Monument to M. P. Mussorgsky, Krivoy Rog

Tertiy Ivanovich donated a large sum for the composer's funeral. This money, together with Repin's fee and the funds collected by friends, went to the arrangement of Mussorgsky's grave at the Tikhvin cemetery of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra. Modest Petrovich was buried not far from the graves of his favorite composers - Dargomyzhsky and Glinka. The high-relief portrait on stone was made with the participation of Ilya Repin and sculptor Mark Antokolsky.