* Salammbô ( Mussorgsky ), an unfinished opera, based on Flaubert's novel, on which Modest Mussorgsky worked between 1863 and 1866

Later, Modest Mussorgsky worked on two comic operas, The Fair at Sorochyntsi and Zhenit ' ba (" The Marriage "), which he left unfinished ( they were completed only in 20th century ).

Mussorgsky worked on the opera between 1874 and 1880, in competition with his work on Khovanshchina ( 1872 – 1880 ); both were incomplete at the time of his death in 1881.

Under the influence of this work ( and the ideas of Georg Gottfried Gervinus, according to whom " the highest natural object of musical imitation is emotion, and the method of imitating emotion is to mimic speech "), Mussorgsky in 1868 rapidly set the first eleven scenes of Nikolai Gogol's The Marriage ( Zhenitba ), with his priority being to render into music the natural accents and patterns of the play's naturalistic and deliberately humdrum dialogue.

In the autumn of 1868, Vladimir Nikolsky, a professor of Russian history and language, and an authority on Pushkin, suggested to Mussorgsky the idea of composing an opera on the subject of Pushkin's drama Boris Godunov.

Otherwise Mussorgsky reserves his vocal melodies for prolonged expressions of emotion -- Boris' first monologue, for example.

The Cell Scene ( Revised Version ) was first performed on 16 January 1879 in Kononov Hall, at a concert of the Free School of Music, in the presence of Mussorgsky.

By 1971, with the releases Pictures at an Exhibition and Trilogy, Emerson began to fully credit classical composers, Modest Mussorgsky for the piano piece which inspired the first album, and Aaron Copland for " Hoedown " on the second.

Roman Vasilyevich bore the nickname " Musorga ", and was the grandfather of the first ' Mussorgsky '.

His wealthy and land-owning family, the noble family of Mussorgsky, is reputedly descended from the first Ruthenian ruler, Rurik, through the sovereign princes of Smolensk.

" Real life " affected Mussorgsky painfully in 1865, when his mother died ; it was at this point that the composer had his first serious bout of either alcoholism or dipsomania.

Although it was in 1867 that Stasov first referred to the ' kuchka ' (' The Five ') of Russian composers loosely grouped around Balakirev, Mussorgsky was by then ceasing to seek Balakirev's approval and was moving closer to the older Alexander Dargomyzhsky.

By the time of the first production of Boris Godunov in February 1874, Mussorgsky had taken part in the ill-fated Mlada project ( in the course of which he had made a choral version of his Night on Bald Mountain ) and had begun Khovanshchina.

Mussorgsky, for instance, called the Saint Petersburg Conservatory a place where Rubinstein and Nikolai Zaremba, who taught music theory there, dressed " in professional, antimusical togas, first pollute their students ' minds, then seal them with various abominations.

While part of this development may have been from Rimsky-Korsakov's need to find a spiritual replacement for Modest Mussorgsky, who had died that March, it may have also been from observing his progress on the first of Glazunov's eight symphonies.

After building the first large pinscreen, Alexeieff and Parker began work on the first pinscreen film in 1931, Night on Bald Mountain, an adaptation of the piece by Modest Mussorgsky, his favorite Russian composer.

He was much admired as song singer and he recorded more than 200 Russian songs by Mussorgsky ( he was the first to record all his 63 songs ), Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Glinka, Borodin, Cui, Balakirev as well as traditional songs.

Critic Edward Dannreuther, wrote, in the 1905 edition of The Oxford History of Music, " Mussorgsky, in his vocal efforts, appears wilfully eccentric.

To salvage what he considered worthy material, Mussorgsky attempted to insert his Bare Mountain music, recast for vocal soloists, chorus, and orchestra, in two subsequent projects — the collaborative opera-ballet Mlada ( 1872 ) and the opera Sorochintsï Fair ( 1880 ).

The composition of the score was divided between César Cui, Modest Mussorgsky, Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov and Aleksandr Borodin, including interpolated ballet music by Ludwig Minkus.

In 1871, Mussorgsky set about recasting and expanding the opera with enthusiasm, ultimately going beyond the requirements of the directorate of the Imperial Theatres, which called simply for the addition of a female role and a scene to contain it.

The Mlada project was soon aborted, and Borodin, like the other members of The Mighty Handful who were involved — César Cui, Modest Mussorgsky, and Rimsky-Korsakov — thought about ways to recycle the music he contributed.

Mussorgsky was especially bitter about this.

Poulenc acknowledged his debt to Mussorgsky, Monteverdi, Verdi, and Debussy in the dedication of this opera but still felt apologetic about the opera's conservative harmonic language saying " You must forgive my Carmelites.

Nor was he consoling about Modest Mussorgsky, a composer who, as a member of " The Five ," he had helped nurture but about whom, for all the public praise of his musical gifts, there was always a note of intellectual condescension.

In 1858, within a few months of beginning his studies with Balakirev, Mussorgsky resigned his commission to devote himself entirely to music.

A few months after abandoning Zhenitba, the 29-year-old Mussorgsky was encouraged to write an opera on the story of Boris Godunov.

* Modest Mussorgsky begins work on an opera, Salammbô, which is never finished.

Balakirev was 25, Cui 27, Mussorgsky 23, Borodin the eldest at 28, and Rimsky-Korsakov just 18.

Mussorgsky adapted the most theatrically effective scenes, mainly those featuring the title character, along with a few other key scenes ( Novodevichy, Cell, Inn ), often preserving Pushkin's verses.

Most Mussorgsky biographers claim that the directorate of the Imperial Theatres also rejected the revised version of Boris Godunov, even providing a date: 6 May 1872 ( Calvocoressi ), or 29 October 1872 ( Lloyd-Jones ).

Over the next two years at Dargomyzhsky's, Mussorgsky met several figures of importance in Russia's cultural life, among them Stasov, César Cui ( a fellow officer ), and Mily Balakirev.

* Modest Mussorgsky, Pesni i plyaski smerti ( Songs and Dances of Death ), song cycle for bass voice and piano

The Five, also known as The Mighty Handful, The Mighty Five, or The Mighty Coterie (, Moguchaya kuchka ), refers to a circle of composers who met in Saint Petersburg, Russia, in the years 1856 – 1870: Mily Balakirev ( the leader ), César Cui, Modest Mussorgsky, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and Alexander Borodin.

A group that called itself " The Mighty Five ", headed by Balakirev ( 1837 – 1910 ) and including Rimsky-Korsakov ( 1844 – 1908 ), Mussorgsky ( 1839 – 81 ), Borodin ( 1833 – 87 ) and César Cui ( 1835 – 1918 ), proclaimed its purpose to compose and popularize Russian national traditions in classical music.

Modest Mussorgsky wrote Sunless ( 1874 ), The Nursery and Songs and Dances of Death, and Dmitri Shostakovich wrote cycles on English and Yiddish poets, as well as Michelangelo and Pushkin.

Musicians of Rostov-on-Don include Efrem Zimbalist the violinist, Zaslavsky, Nazaretov, and Modest Mussorgsky, Irina Allegrova ( 1952 ), a pop singer and Yuri Bashmet, and Sergey Vladimirovich Rodionov, composer.

* The False Dmitriy's story was dramatized by Schiller ( in Demetrius ), Sumarokov, Pushkin, Khomyakov, by Modest Mussorgsky in the opera Boris Godunov and by Antonín Dvořák in his opera Dimitrij.

* The Nursery ( song cycle ) ( 1870 ), by Modest Mussorgsky

The scherzo movement of the quartet, the third movement ( Allegretto ), uses a Russian theme also used by Modest Mussorgsky in Boris Godunov.

Amongst this circle was a group who became known as The Mighty Handful, consisting of Mily Balakirev ( railroad clerk ), Alexander Borodin ( chemist ), César Cui ( soldier and engineer ), Modest Mussorgsky ( Imperial Guard Officer ) and Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov ( navy officer ).

* 1966-Boris Godunov ( Mussorgsky ), conducted by Herbert von Karajan ( Role: Shuiski, The Simpleton )