Modest Mussorgsky Essentials

Although he was only an occasional composer, and faced a number of professional and personal obstacles—including a struggle with alcoholism and a long stint in conscripted civil service—Modest Mussorgsky's great works earn a place among "The Five" Romantic Russians who gave the nation its own classical tradition (Balakirev, Cui, Rimsky-Korsakov, and Alexander Borodin round out this elite fraternity). When he died, he left behind mostly incomplete works—the rough-edged inventiveness of which inspired acts of “polishing” by a small, often quibbling army of musicologists and admiring composers (such as Rimsky-Korsakov and Ravel). In whatever version one manages to hear them performed, Night on Bald Mountain, Pictures at an Exhibition, and the majestically impressive opera Boris Godunov all put Mussorgsky's psychologically expressive talents on display.