On March 21, 1839, a boy was born in the family of a poor landowner Peter Mussorgsky, who received the name Modest. His mother, Yulia Ivanovna, doted on her youngest child. Perhaps the reason for this was the death of the first two sons, and she gave all the tenderness to the two surviving boys. Modest spent his childhood on an estate in the Pskov region, among lakes and dense forests. Only the perseverance of the mother and his innate talent helped not to remain uneducated - the mother was engaged in reading, foreign languages ​​​​and music with the children. Although there was only an old piano in the manor house, it was well tuned, and by the age of seven Modest was playing Liszt's works of a small volume on it. And at the age of nine, he performed Field's concerto for the first time.

Pyotr Mussorgsky also loved music and was very pleased with the obvious talent of his son. But could the parents have imagined that their boy would not only become a musician and composer, but would glorify Russia all over the world with his music? Modest was prepared for a completely different fate - after all, all the Mussorgskys came from an ancient noble family and always served in military units. Only Modest's father escaped this by devoting himself to agriculture.

As soon as Modest was ten years old, he and his older brother were taken to St. Petersburg, where the boys were to study at the School of Guards Ensigns, a very privileged military school. After graduating from this school, seventeen-year-old Modest Mussorgsky is determined to serve in the Preobrazhensky Guards Regiment. He had a brilliant military career ahead of him, but quite unexpectedly, the young man resigned and entered the main engineering department. He later worked in the Investigation Division of the Forest Department.

Shortly before making such a surprising decision, one of his comrades in the regiment introduced Modest to the composer Dargomyzhsky. A few minutes were enough for the venerable musician to appreciate the freedom with which Modest played the piano, and most importantly, his unique improvisations and outstanding talent. Dargomyzhsky decided to reinforce his first impression and brought the young man together with Cui and Balakirev. So for Mussorgsky a completely new life, full of music and friends in spirit, began - in Balakirev's circle "The Mighty Handful".

For Mussorgsky, this was real happiness - after all, the art of war did not interest him at all. Another thing is literature, history and philosophy, he always devoted a lot of time to these subjects even at the school. But the main thing for him has always been music. And the character of the future composer was in no way suitable for a military career. Modest Petrovich was distinguished by tolerance for others and democratic actions and views. When the peasant reform was announced in 1861, his kindness to people manifested itself especially brightly - in order to save his own serfs from the hardships of redemption payments, Mussorgsky decided to give up his part of the inheritance in favor of his brother.

The accumulation of new knowledge in the field of music could not but result in a genius period of powerful creative activity. Mussorgsky decided to write a classical opera, but with the obligatory inclusion in it of the embodiment of his addictions to large folk scenes and a central personality - strong and strong-willed. He decided to draw the plot for his opera from Flaubert's novel Salammbo, which sends the reader back to the history of ancient Carthage. Expressive and beautiful musical themes were born in the head of the young composer, and he even recorded some of them. Mass episodes were especially successful for him. But at some point, Mussorgsky suddenly realized that the images already created by his imagination were exceptionally far from the real Carthage described by Flaubert. This discovery made him lose interest in his work and abandon it.

Another of his plans was an opera based on Gogol's Marriage. The idea suggested by Dargomyzhsky corresponded to the utmost with Mussorgsky's character - with his mockery, humor and ability to show complex processes with simple methods. But for that time, the task set - the creation of an opera based on a prose text - looked not only impossible, but simply too revolutionary. Work on The Marriage captured Mussorgsky, and his comrades considered this work a vivid manifestation of the composer's talent in comedy. This talent was especially evident in creating interesting musical characteristics of the characters. And yet it soon became clear that the opera based on The Marriage itself was only a bold experiment, and work on it was interrupted. Mussorgsky, in order to create a serious, real opera, had to follow a completely different path.

Often visiting the house of Glinka's sister, Lyudmila Ivanovna Shestakova, Mussorgsky met Nikolsky Vladimir Vasilyevich. A brilliant literary critic and philologist, a recognized specialist in the field of Russian literature, Nikolsky advised the musician to pay attention to Pushkin's tragedy Boris Godunov. The philologist was no stranger to music and believed that "Boris Godunov" could be an excellent material for creating an opera libretto. The grain thrown by Nikolsky fell on fertile ground - Mussorgsky thought about it and began to read the tragedy. Even while reading, entire fragments of magnificent solemn music began to sound in his head. The composer literally felt with his whole body: an opera based on this material would become a surprisingly voluminous and multifaceted work.

The opera Boris Godunov was fully completed at the end of 1869. And in 1970, Mussorgsky received a reply from Gedeonov, director of the imperial theatres. From the letter, the composer learned that the committee of seven people categorically rejected Boris Godunov. Within a year, Mussorgsky created the second edition of the opera - seven of her paintings turned into four acts with a prologue. In the dedication to this work, Mussorgsky wrote that it was only thanks to his comrades in the Mighty Handful that he was able to complete this difficult work. But even in the second edition, the opera was refused by the theatrical committee. The situation was saved by the prima donna of the Mariinsky Theater Platonova - it was only at her request that the opera Boris Godunov was accepted for production.

Mussorgsky did not find a place for himself in anticipation of the premiere, fearing that society would not accept his opera. But the composer's fears were unfounded. The day of the premiere of "Boris Godunov" turned into a triumph and a true celebration of the composer. The news of the wonderful opera spread through the city with lightning speed, and every single subsequent performance was sold out. Mussorgsky could be perfectly happy, but...

The composer did not at all expect an unexpected and exceptionally heavy blow that fell upon him from the critics. "Sankt-Peterburgskiye Vedomosti" in February 1974 published a devastating review of "Boris Godunov" signed by Cui, one of the composer's closest friends. Mussorgsky took his friend's act as a stab in the back.

But both the triumph of the opera and the disappointments gradually faded into the background - life went on. The public's interest in Boris Godunov did not fade away, but the critics still considered the opera "wrong" - Mussorgsky's music did not correspond to the romantic stereotypes then accepted in the opera. The transfer of Mussorgsky to the investigative unit of the Forest Department burdened him with a lot of boring work, and there was practically no time to build creative plans. He did not quit, of course, composing music, but he did not find peace.

A particularly dark period in the life of the great composer began. The "Mighty Handful" broke up. And the point was not only in the vile blow of Cui, but also in the overdue internal contradictions among the members of the circle. Mussorgsky himself considered this event a betrayal of the people he loved dearly - a betrayal not to him personally, but to the old ideals that rallied them. Soon one of his friends, the artist Hartmann, died. Following him, the woman passionately and secretly loved by Mussorgsky passed away, whose name the composer did not name anyone - the only memory of love was the "Tombstone Letter", found only after Mussorgsky's death, and numerous works dedicated to this mysterious stranger.

Old friends were replaced by new ones. Mussorgsky closely converges with Count A. A. Golenishchev-Kutuzov, a young poet, and becomes attached to him. Perhaps it was this friendship that kept the composer on the edge of despair and breathed new life into him. The best of Mussorgsky's works of that period were written to the verses of Count Arseny. However, even here the composer was in for a bitter disappointment - after one and a half of such a bright friendship, Golenishchev-Kutuzov got married and moved away from his friends.

Another experience led the composer to guilt, and he even changed outwardly - flabby, stopped taking care of himself, dressed haphazardly ... In addition, troubles began in the service. Mussorgsky was fired more than once, and he constantly experienced financial difficulties. The problems reached the point that once the composer was kicked out of a rented apartment for non-payment. The health of the musical genius was gradually deteriorating.

Nevertheless, it was at that time that Mussorgsky's genius was recognized abroad. Franz Liszt, as they called him then, "the great old man", received from the publisher notes of works by Russian composers and was literally shocked by the talent and novelty of Mussorgsky's works. The stormy enthusiasm of Liszt especially touched the cycle of Mussorgsky's songs under the general title "Children's". In this cycle, the composer vividly and juicy painted the complex and bright world of children's souls.

Mussorgsky himself, despite the terrible conditions of his life, experienced a true creative take-off during these years. Unfortunately, many of the composer's ideas remained unfinished or unfinished by his talent. However, everything created shows that the composer was able to ascend to a new level in his work. The first work to follow "Boris Godunov" was the suite called "Pictures at an Exhibition", the most significant and largest work for the piano. Mussorgsky was able to discover new nuances in the sound of the instrument and reveal its new possibilities. He also thought about working with Pushkin's multifaceted dramaturgy. He saw an opera, the content of which would include the life of an entire country with many episodes and paintings. But Mussorgsky did not find the basis for the libretto of such an opera in literature and decided to write the plot himself.

According to music critics, Mussorgsky's opera Khovanshchina has become a new, higher stage in the development of the composer's musical language. He still considered speech to be the main means of expressing the characters and feelings of people, but the musical arrangement itself now received from him a new, broader and deeper meaning. While working on the opera Khovanshchina, Mussorgsky also composed another opera - The Sorochinskaya Fair based on Gogol's work. In this opera, the composer's love for life and simple human joys is clearly visible, despite the blows of fate and mental suffering. The composer also planned to work on a musical folk drama about the Pugachev uprising. Together with Khovanshchina and Boris Godunov, this opera could form a single trilogy of musical descriptions of Russian history.

In the last years of his life, Mussorgsky left the service, and in order for him not to starve to death, a group of admirers pooled money to pay the composer a small pension. A little money was given by his performances as a pianist-accompanist, and in 1879 Mussorgsky decided to go on a tour of the Crimea and Ukraine with concerts. This journey was for the composer the last bright spot in a series of gray days.

On February 12, 1881, Mussorgsky suffered a cerebral hemorrhage. But before his death, he had to survive several more such blows. Only on March 28, 1881, his body stopped resisting, and the great composer died - at the age of forty-two.

Mussorgsky was interred at the Tikhvin cemetery at the Alexander Nevsky Lavra. Almost a hundred years later, in 1972, his museum was opened in the village of Naumovo, not far from the family estate that has not survived.

Like many great people, fame came to the Russian composer Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky posthumously. Rimsky-Korsakov undertook to complete his Khovanshchina and put the late composer's music archive in order. It was in his edition that the opera "Khovanshchina" was staged, which, like other works of Mussorgsky, went around the whole world.

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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 her mother was alive, she sent either 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 close to his heart to call them 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 mind. 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.

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MUSSORGSKY, MODEST PETROVICH(1839–1881), Russian composer. Born on March 9 (21), 1839 in the village of Karevo, Toropetsky district, Pskov province. Mussorgsky early showed musical abilities, from 1849 to 1854 he studied with the famous pianist and teacher A.A. Gerke. However, following the family tradition, in 1852 he entered the St. Petersburg School of Guards ensigns and cavalry cadets, from which he graduated in 1856. Having become an officer of the guard, he gained fame as a talented amateur musician - pianist and composer; soon Mussorgsky met M.A. Balakirev, later the head of the New Russian Music School (“The Mighty Handful”), and began to take composition lessons from him (these classes, however, were not systematic). In 1858 Mussorgsky retired to devote himself entirely to music. Soon his first compositions were publicly performed in St. Petersburg: a scherzo in B-flat major (composed in 1858, performed under the baton of Anton Rubinstein in 1860) and a choir from the tragedy Oedipus rex Sophocles (composed in 1859, performed in 1861). The ruin of the family, caused by the reform of 1861, forced Mussorgsky to enter the civil service (from 1863 to 1867 - in the Engineering Department, from 1869 to 1880 - in the Forest Department and State Control). Nevertheless, already during the 1860s, a number of his outstanding works appeared - wonderful songs and romances for voice and piano; orchestral pieces, including Midsummer Night on Bald Mountain(1867; better known in the edition and instrumentation of Rimsky-Korsakov under the title Night on Bald Mountain); scenes from two operas - a "big" romantic opera Salambo after Flaubert (1863–1864) and realistic experimental chamber opera Marriage according to Gogol (1868). Mussorgsky's next major work, completed in 1869, was seven scenes based on Pushkin's tragedy. Boris Godunov, in which two trends intertwine and interact: relatively speaking, lyrical-romantic and naturalistic (from the "natural" school that dominated the literature of that time). This first edition Boris Godunov was rejected by the imperial stage, which prompted Mussorgsky to radically remake the opera, introducing into it a whole "Polish" act and a new finale - a popular revolt ("Under the Kroms"), and also to change other scenes in many respects. Second edition Boris Godunov(1872) was staged at the Mariinsky Theater on February 8, 1874.

Between the creation of the first and second editions Boris Mussorgsky wrote his first vocal cycle Children's(1868–1872); later two other cycles appeared: Without the sun in 1874 and Songs and dances of death in 1875–1877. Even before the premiere Boris he began work on the second historical musical drama - Khovanshchina, which he continued to compose until 1880 (with interruptions). Since 1876 (and according to some sources - earlier) he also took up the comic opera Sorochinskaya Fair according to Gogol, which he wrote in fits and starts. From the mid-1870s, his addiction to alcohol exerted an increasingly destructive influence on the composer, and the only major work, apart from the vocal cycles, that he managed to complete during this period was the piano suite Pictures from the exhibition(1874; also widely known in the orchestration of Ravel), inspired by the drawings and watercolors of Mussorgsky's friend, the artist V.A. Hartmann.

Mussorgsky was not fired from service only thanks to the patronage of his boss in the State Audit Office, a major official and a great connoisseur of folk songs T.I. other admirers of his talent. He also worked as an accompanist and teacher of musical theory at the private singing courses of his friend Daria Leonova. In February 1881, after an attack of delirium tremens, he was placed in a St. Petersburg military hospital (where, by the way, I.E. Repin painted the famous portrait of the composer).

Critical Assessment.

During the life of Mussorgsky, only part of his legacy was published - Boris Godunov and several vocal works; other things remained unpublished, and two operas remained unfinished. Rimsky-Korsakov, an old friend of Mussorgsky's, voluntarily took upon himself the responsibility of putting in order and publishing all of Mussorgsky's works. However, while completing and orchestrating the unfinished material, Rimsky-Korsakov made many changes in the melodic and harmonic order in the works completed by the author. This also affected Boris Godunov, in which Rimsky-Korsakov made a number of changes, reductions, relocations, and also completely re-instrumented the opera. It should be recognized that this opera first won Russian and then world fame in the edition of Rimsky-Korsakov, and only in the mid-1920s, a major Russian textual critic P.A. Lamm published the author's score. Boris and proceeded to publish the collected works of Mussorgsky in original editions (it remained unfinished).

Rimsky-Korsakov's goal was above all to give a professionally impeccable appearance to Mussorgsky's sharply original and often clumsy, from the usual point of view, manner. But now such an intention seems to be at least controversial, since, for example, Mussorgsky's "empirical" harmony is much more expressive than Rimsky-Korsakov's more academic version. Mussorgsky's ideal, like many other Russian artists and writers of the 1860s, was not harmony of form, but the truth of life. The best of the composer's songs, the best pages of his operas, are scenes directly observed in reality and then embodied in music with amazing originality and persuasiveness. Lyrics, coming from folk songwriting, flow into Mussorgsky's works like a living stream: the composer saw the song as the most important element of national self-consciousness. Creating a masterpiece - opera Boris Godunov, where Mussorgsky's style reaches a harmonious balance, the composer's remarkable dramatic flair contributed a lot. Folk songs become even more important in the compositions of the next period, especially in the opera Khovanshchina.

Mussorgsky, the brightest representative of the Russian "Five" - ​​"Mighty Handful", was among his comrades and the most ardent patriot. He knew and loved folk art well and strove to create a work imbued with the Russian spirit, embodying the features of the national character. He widely used typical folklore modes, “empty” chords and unisons characteristic of the old peasant song polyphony; his metrically free, melodious recitative also has a source of folk speech and folklore narrative genres. Mussorgsky's opera orchestra, with great expressiveness, is quite ascetic and completely subordinate to the vocal parts. In his editorial Boris Rimsky-Korsakov sacrificed to brilliant instrumentation the flexibility and variety of correlations between voices and the orchestra, which form a kind of timbre blocks in the original score. The clavier of the second edition of the opera was published in 1874, in 1928 the clavier and score became available, combining the first and second author's editions; today in the composition Complete Works composer, each edition is published separately (in the form of both clavier and score).

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.

Mussorgsky's biography will be of interest to everyone who is not indifferent to his original music. The composer changed the course of the development of musical culture, but he was achieved...

By Masterweb

25.06.2018 20:00

Mussorgsky's biography will be of interest to everyone who is not indifferent to his original music. The composer changed the course of development of musical culture, but his achievements were not recognized during his lifetime, as often happens with geniuses who are ahead of their time. Mussorgsky's operas "Boris Godunov" and "Khovanshchina" are recognized masterpieces today, and his compositions for vocal and piano are proudly performed by the world's best musicians.

Short biography of Modest Mussorgsky

The composer was born on March 21, 1839 in the village. Karevo, which is located in the Pskov province. The biography of Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky might not have been so successful, but his father was a representative of an old noble family, so the path to high society immediately opened up for the boy. Until the age of ten, the future celebrity was taught at home, and in 1849 was sent to the Petrishule school - one of the oldest and best educational institutions in St. Petersburg. Without graduating from it, in 1852 Modest transferred to the School of Guards ensigns - a privileged military school, within the walls of which many outstanding figures of Russia were brought up.

One of the teachers of the School, Father Krupsky, recognized the talent and taught Mussorgsky to understand the deep essence of church music. In 1856, the young man's education came to an end. After graduating from the School, Modest served for some time in the Life Guards, then in the engineering department, and after that in the Ministry of State Property, which was in charge of state lands, and also in state control.

"Mighty bunch"

In the 60s, Modest Petrovich became a member of the "Mighty Handful" - a community of outstanding composers of St. Petersburg. By this time, the young man managed to become a well-educated and erudite Russian officer, spoke French and German fluently, understood Greek and Latin.

Mily Alekseevich Balakirev, who was only two years older than Modest and was the founder of the "Mighty Handful", forced the young composer to devote more time to music. He played an important role in Mussorgsky's biography. Mily Alekseevich personally supervised the reading of orchestral scores, taught to analyze the harmony and form of the works of the world's greatest composers, and tried to develop critical thinking skills. Until 1871, the master did not create a single major musical composition. This period of the biography of Modest Mussorgsky was not marked by any significant achievement. The composer wrote small songs and romances, but failed to complete a single opera, although he repeatedly made attempts.

First major success

The first major work was the opera "Boris Godunov", created on the basis of the work of A.S. Pushkin. In 1870, the composer submitted the materials of the opera to the directorate of the Imperial Theaters, but was refused without explanation. However, one of Mussorgsky's friends was a member of the directorate's committee and informed the author that the opera was rejected due to the lack of the so-called "female element". Modest Petrovich finalized the work, and in 1874 its first grandiose premiere took place on the stage of the St. Petersburg Mariinsky Theater.

Biography of Mussorgsky: the last years of his life

In the 1870s, the collapse of the famous "Mighty Handful" was outlined. The difference in views on music and its development has led to the fact that society has almost disintegrated and transformed. Modest Petrovich painfully experienced this event, considered the other members to be musical conformists, cowardly and hopeless, who had betrayed the great Russian idea. Mussorgsky believed that other composers were short-sighted, that they did not create anything of value, nothing new, but only rewrote what had already been created and voiced a long time ago.

A dark period has come in the biography of Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky. His work invariably met with misunderstanding by critics, viewers and officials. The composer's works were everywhere met with rejection. However, the most painful for the author was the rejection of his bold ideas by close friends - members of the "Mighty Handful" Rimsky-Korsakov, Cui, Balakirev. The stubborn author could not believe that he was wrong everywhere. It was painful for him to be on opposite sides of the barricade with friends.

Experiences, constant rejections and rejection led to a nervous breakdown and alcoholism, but the composer continued to create even in this state. He never took notes, did not write drafts, carefully considered all ideas, and then wrote down a completely finished work. This method of work, combined with an unstable mental state and constant drunkenness, led to a slow pace of work.

In a brief biography of Mussorgsky, it should be mentioned that he resigned from the "forest department" and lost a stable income. After that, the composer lived on occasional one-time earnings and the help of wealthier friends. His girlfriend, singer D. M. Leonova, took Modest Petrovich with her on tour in the southern regions. Mussorgsky acted as an accompanist and also performed his own works. His bold, harmonious improvisation was to the taste of the audience, and the concerts were always a success. The composer realized that his innovative view of music was finally recognized.

Last performance

The last public concert in the biography of M. Mussorgsky took place on February 4, 1881. An evening in memory of Dostoevsky was held in St. Petersburg, where Modest Petrovich performed on a par with other musicians. A portrait of the writer was installed on the stage, the composer took a seat at the piano and performed an impromptu mourning chime of bells. Those present were struck by the depth of his grief.

On February 13, Modest Petrovich had an attack of delirium tremens, and he was urgently hospitalized. Already in the hospital, Ilya Repin visited the master and painted the only lifetime portrait of the brilliant composer. A month later, Mussorgsky's heart stopped forever. He was buried on the territory of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra.

Creation

Mussorgsky's biography consists of ups and downs. His original, original understanding of music was not understood by his contemporaries, but his descendants considered him a genius. Modest Petrovich rejected the routine, did not recognize the authorities, ignored the rules, considering them only a collection of archaisms. Throughout his life, the author strove for novelty. The main specialization of the composer is vocal music. With the help of sound, the author was able to give weight to the words, the necessary emotion and touch the listener to the depth.

However, Modest Petrovich achieved the most significant success in the field of opera. He created a special kind of this genre, which he called "musical drama". During this period, romantic operatic aesthetics were popular, but Mussorgsky completely rejected the existing canons. With the help of specific musical methods, he created a tragic collision, which he embodied in the work "Boris Godunov". Critics reacted unkindly to the author's innovative ideas, calling the libretto unsuccessful and the music rough. Even close friends, members of the "Mighty Handful" considered Mussorgsky inexperienced, noted the lack of a storyline and insufficient character development. The music of Modest Petrovich received recognition only after the death of the author.

The most famous works:

• opera "Boris Godunov";
• opera "Khovanshchina";
• opera "Sorochinsky Fair";
• song "Where are you, little star?";
• romance "I have many houses and gardens";
• romance "What are the words of love to you";
• lullaby "Sleep, sleep, peasant son."

When describing a brief biography of Mussorgsky, one cannot fail to note an interesting fact from the life of an outstanding composer. Although the author did not create literary works, his extraordinary literary skill was manifested in letters, which were subsequently published as a separate book.

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