Williamsburg Regional Library

Musorgsky and his circle, a Russian musical adventure, Stephen Walsh

eng

Includes bibliographical references (pages 445-448) and index

collective biography

illustrationsplates

index present

non fiction

Musorgsky and his circle

bibliography

827010626

Stephen Walsh

a Russian musical adventure

The emergence of Russian classical music in the nineteenth century in the wake of Mikhail Glinka comprises one of the most remarkable and fascinating stories in all musical history. The five men who came together in the Russian capital of St. Petersburg in the 1860s, all composers of talent, some of genius, would be--in spite of a virtual lack of technical training--responsible for some of the greatest and best-loved music ever written. How this happened is the subject of Stephen Walsh's brilliant composite portrait of the group known in the West as the Five, and in Russia as moguchaya kuchka--the Mighty Little Heap. Friends, competitors, and creative intellectuals whose ambitions and ideas reflect the ferment of their times, Mily Balakirev, César Cui, Alexander Borodin, Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov, and--most important of all--Modest Musorgsky, come wonderfully to life in this extended account. The detail is engrossing. We see Borodin composing music while conducting research in chemistry ("he would jump up and run back to the laboratory to make sure nothing had burnt out or boiled over there, meanwhile filling the corridor with improbable sequences of ninths or sevenths"); Balakirev tutoring Musorgsky ("Balakirev could not remedy the defects in his pupil's character, but he could confront him with works of genius"); Cui doggedly producing operas during breaks from his career as a military fortifications instructor. Musorgsky asserts his independence, moving from writing songs and the showpiece Night on Bald Mountain to the magnificent Boris Godunov, meanwhile struggling against poverty and depression. In the background such important figures as Vissarion Belinsky and Nikolay Chernïshevsky shape the cultural milieu, while the godfather of the kuchka, critic and scholar Vladimir Stasov, is seen offering sometimes combative support. As an experienced and widely skilled musical scholar and biographer (his two-volume life of Stravinsky has been called "one of the best books ever written about a musician"), Stephen Walsh is exceptionally wellplaced to tell this story. He does so with deep understanding and panache, making Musorgksy and His Circle both important and a delight to read [Publisher description]

1. Arrivals. Balakirev ; Russia ; The kuchka -- 2. The father figure. Glinka and his operas -- 3. Lawyer-critic. Vladimir Stasov ; Belinsky -- 4. The officer and the doctor. Musorgsky ; Borodin ; Dargomïzhsky ; Study with Balakirev -- 5. On aesthetics and being Russian. Chernïshevsky ; Stasov and theory ; Modes of nationalism -- 6. New institutions. Anton Rubinstein ; The RMS and the conservatory ; Reactions -- 7. First steps. Oedipus ; King Lear ; A prisoner of the Caucasus ; Songs and passion -- 8. The third Rome : the clerk and the midshipman. Moscow ; Folk song ; Herzen ; Emancipation ; Musorgsky at the ministry ; Rimsky-Korsakov -- 9. Wagner and his acolyte. Wagner in St. Petersburg ; Serov and Judith ; How the circle responded -- 10. An African priestess and a Scottish bride. The commune ; Salammbô ; Cui the music critic ; William Ratcliff -- 11. Home is the sailor. Musorgsky songs ; Rimsky-Korsakov returns ; His First symphony ; Rogneda ; The Bogatyrs ; Balakirev's folk-song collection ; The Stone guest begun -- 12. Life studies. Romances and song portraits ; Musorgsky and politics ; Balakirev in Prague ; The kuchka named -- 13. Symphonic pictures and an abstract. Borodin's First symphony ; Tamara ; St. John's Night on Bald Mountain ; Sadko -- 14. A French guest and a Stone one. Balakirev at the RMS ; Berlioz in St. Petersburg ; The classicist ; More song portraits ; The Stone guest and the circle -- 15. A child and an aborted wedding. Musorgsky and children ; "With Nyanya" ; Marriage -- 16. Outsiders. Antar ; Tchaikovsky and the circle ; Borodin songs ; Lohengrin at the Maryinsky -- 17. History for the stage. History plays ; The Maid of Pskov begun ; Boris Godunov -- 18. An opera performed, an opera abandoned. William Ratcliff staged ; Prince Igor conceived ; Prince Igor dropped ; Balakirev dismissed ; Islamey ; "The peep show" ; The Nursery -- 19. A shared apartment ... Balakirev in decline ; Boris rejected ; Boris revised ; The power of the fiend ; The Maid of Pskov ; Borodin's Second symphony -- 20. ... And a shared commission. Professor Rimsky-Korsakov ; The collective Mlada ; The Stone guest staged ; Research on Khovanshchina -- 21. Three tsars and a tyrant. The Maid of Pskov staged ; Boris excerpted ; Work on Khovanshchina ; Angelo -- 22. Toward new shores. Boris staged "complete" ; Golenishchev-Kutuzov ; Sunless ; Pictures from an exhibition -- 23. Distractability. Rimsky writes fugues and a string quartet ; Prince Igor resumed ; More Khovanshchina -- 24. Dances of death. Musorgsky the idealist and the drinker ; Naumov ; Songs and dances of death ; Rimsky-Korsakov as editor -- 25. A chaos of operas. Angelo staged ; Work on Prince Igor and Khovanshchina ; Sorochintsï fair ; Rimsky's wind chamber music -- 26. Drowning in the waters. Opinions of the kuchka ; Balakirev rises ; Musorgsky sinks ; May night -- 27. The chemist in his laboratory. Musorgsky as accompanist ; On tour with Leonova ; Borodin's First quartet ; Prince Igor continued ; Khovanshchina almost finished -- 28. Death by sunlight. In central Asia ; Fairy tale and Sinfonietta ; The Snow maiden ; Musorgsky's last days -- 29. Heirs and rebels. Musorgsky buried ; Tamara completed ; Borodin's Second quartet and Third symphony ; Glazunov and Belyayev ; The kuchka ends -- Epilogue: The survivors

adult