In this publication I will move away from reviews subject I am used to. And today I would like to tell about the genius of Russian culture, who made an invaluable contribution to the history of world music. More precisely, about one of his creations.

![0008-005-Musorgskij-Modest-Petrovich.jpg](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmSPFW2cJ4cmztND2UGV6WHYMxXU11VggozQGjTnPgPmam/0008-005-Musorgskij-Modest-Petrovich.jpg)

Modest Mussorgsky lived only 42 years, wrote relatively few compositions. He didn't create things for concert programs at all; had no classical music education. For this reason, Mussorgsky did not recognize the authorities at all and practically did not use standard musical techniques.

Virtually all of his musical innovations are innovative, out of tradition - this served as a constant criticism of the maestro by contemporaries during his lifetime, including his junior comrades in “The Five” (“Mighty Handful”) of **Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov** and **Cesar Cui**.


Of the six operas, he was able to finish only one – **“Boris Godunov”**. As you know, during the life of his work was not popular. It's believed that in classical music Modest Petrovich has overtaken his time. And I am inclined to agree with this, since the real interest in his work was revived after **Maurice Ravel** made his arrangement of the **“Pictures at an Exhibition”** piano cycle that was little known at that time fifty years after the first performance.

![529867169-mussorgsky-1874-1.jpg](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmaaWBDsTZw5yS99dM9xDfDu2LiWebgDmzX4E3M1gRZjA1/529867169-mussorgsky-1874-1.jpg)

Only after this event Mussorgsky was included in the number of world values of classical music. Were revised look at his unusual works. That is why for fifty years at least he was ahead of his time, because even in the unfinished "Khovanshchina" you can find almost jazz motifs if you wish.

On the suite "Pictures at an Exhibition" I will stop. Because in a short article it is impossible to reveal the breadth of nature Modest Mussorgsky. In it, a brilliant officer with knowledge of several languages, an ingenious self-taught musician and an absolutely bohemian character who did not have a permanent salary, a man who ended his difficult life in a psychiatric clinic in a fit of delirium tremens.

https://youtu.be/_5r8sa863Ts 

A brief creation history of the piano cycle is as follows: Mussorgsky was familiar with the schedule and architectural designer Victor Hartman, who preached the neo-Russian style in design and architecture. Hartman, like Mussorgsky, was an innovator and a dreamer; Modest Mussorgsky liked the “Russian” theme in art, because he thought in the same categories only in music. Hartman, by the way, is one of the architectural designers of the famous monument "Millennium of Russia" in Veliky Novgorod. Young people became friends, but in 1873 Hartman suddenly died.

Vladimir Stasov, a well-known patron of arts, producer and the godfather of Russian art in general, organized a posthumous exhibition of Hartman’s drawings in early 1874. Death of a friend and exhibition made a strong impression on Mussorgsky and he soon wrote a piano cycle based on Hartman's drawings, calling the cycle "Pictures at an Exhibition".

![Screenshot_2.jpg](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmea6yq12L3J1trZdFwEZMqFLJSjmikJkkz8eq8SnMdyGf/Screenshot_2.jpg)

And here I have a reason to call Modest Mussorgsky the first musical impressionist. Since he tried to embody in music his impression of the artist's drawings, which, in turn, he himself sketched not at all in a realistic manner, but also rather, in impressionistic. Similar to the structure of the musical cycle of Saint-Saens "Carnival of animals" appeared only after twelve years.

The cycle contains ten pieces of absolutely different sizes from short minute numbers to six to seven minute suites. All ten numbers are periodically interspersed with the play Promenade, with which the cycle begins - in fact, with a piece of music returning as a reprise later on. Thus, the concept is rounded out, and Promenade melody, which is familiar from the very beginning, gives you the opportunity to think about the next number you just listened to. The listener walks from the picture to the picture and contemplates.

https://youtu.be/NlwAPrZZrCU 

Some of Hartman's pictures survived, some remained only in memoirs of contemporaries. Needless to say, Mussorgsky made the pictures alive, that is, he went far beyond the actual image. So the play “Samuel Goldenberg und Schmuÿle” was made after two different drawings of the artist and is a dialogue between two people, embodied by musical means. The play "Bydło" depicts a completely pessimistic picture of the slow movement of a cart driven by oxen, the driver is presented with a separate theme of Polish-Ukrainian melody.

Should I be reminded that Modest Mussorgsky' creation in the XX century, shattered into many quotations in various embodiments. Only one orchestration in different original readings made dozens. Representatives of popular music did not stand aside.

Naturally, the album by progressive group Emerson, Lake and Palmer under the name "Pictures at an Exibishion" (1971) is most famous. However, it seems to me that a listener who is familiar with original works may remain dissatisfied with this studio work.

https://youtu.be/_KvoDgCn15g 

Everything that could be invented was thought up by Mussorgsky from the very beginning and any deviations from his innovative ideas are perceived by me with disbelief.

In addition to ELP, with the arrangements of "pictures" was noted Tangerine Dream in 1995, Yes - in the eighties. Michael Jackson in the introduction to the song History used another noticeable number of Mussorgsky - the grand finale of the "Pictures at an Exhibition" called “Bogatyr Gates. In the capital city in Kiev”. The finale was written under the impression of this architectural sketch of Viktor Hartman.


But the most unusual cover was made by German thrash metal band Mekong Delta in 1996 on an album under the authentic name Pictures at an Exibishion - on that album they performed all of Mussorgsky’s numbers, including replays from Promenade.

https://youtu.be/1juCJ-t0A-g 

This is how Mussorgsky’s innovative view of classical music has thrown a bridge half a century and a half ahead. Soon his works have become in demand in a variety of musical styles of modernity from progressive rock to thrash metal.

And such diversity and demand made me once again listen to Modest Modest Mussorgsky's immortal creation, finding new and new nuances in his unusual musical vision and "Pictures at an Exhibition" now seem to me several times cooler than at the first auditions.

https://youtu.be/FsvpFU7KY7E