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Khovanshchina, another major opera completed after his death. Pictures at an Exhibition (1874), despite the brevity of its constituent parts, is a huge and imposing cycle for solo piano. The raw primitivism of Mussorgsky’s originals has made something of a comeback in recent years.

Boris Godunov (1869/1872), an opera notable for its realistic vocal writing and portrayal of historical events.

But from 1867 he went into creative overdrive. The result is music that is irregular, unpredictable and uncompromisingly earthy.

Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky - Biography | Deutsche Grammophon

Musical innovator, nationalist renegade and compulsive alcoholic, Modest Mussorgsky was a complex, troubled man.

For music of this period only that of Berlioz rivals its sheer audacity and uncompromising invention. The Romantic ideal of direct and deep expression is often magnificently realised, and always in an unmistakably Russian voice. At last Mussorgsky had found the ideal subject with which to explore the Russian psyche through his music.

He lived for several years in a shared apartment with other artists and musicians, a lively creative environment but financially unstable. He died soon after, aged only 42, his wrecked body finally caving in due to massive heart failure. He was bemused by Mussorgsky’s ‘absurd, disconnected harmonies, ugly part-writing, sometimes strikingly illogical modulations, sometimes a depressing lack of them’.

From the bustling scene of French women quarrelling in The Market Place at Limoges, to The Great Gate of Kiev’s panoply of cascading bells, Mussorgsky’s inspiration doesn’t falter for a second.

He was largely self-taught in composition after early lessons with Balakirev.

When Was Mussorgsky Born?

He was born on March 21, 1839 (March 9 in the Old Style calendar), on his family’s estate in Karevo, in the Pskov region of Russia.

How Did Modest Mussorgsky Die?

Mussorgsky died on March 28, 1881, at the age of 42, in St. Petersburg. Finding an effective structure for his works was a recurring problem, as was completing them.

His music was often criticized in his lifetime for being crude or unfinished.

In that important respect his music remains inimitable.