March 21 - Modest Mussorgsky (The Musical Birthday Series, 7th Annual Cycle)

Previous postings for March 21st may be found here: J. S. Bach [sic] (2019), Modest Mussorgsky (2020), Modest Mussorgsky; Hermann Finck (2021), Modest Mussorgsky (2022),  Modest Mussorgsky (2023), and

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Modest Mussorgsky (21 March [O.S. 9 March] 1839 – 28 March [O.S. 16 March] 1881) was a Russian composer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rough Edges

Rimsky-Korsakov, a musician who had acquired a more conventional technique of orchestration and composition, revised and completed a number of Mussorgsky’s works, versions which now may seem inferior to the innovative original compositions as Mussorgsky conceived them. —- Philadelphia Chamber Music Society (www.pcmsconcerts.org/composer/modest-mussorgsky)

The works of Mussorgsky were subject to correction,

Which was done with devotion, but no circumspection.

Mussorgsky, they argued, was too amateurish,

Too clumsy, too gauche, and too brutally boorish.

But the features that Rimsky considered too rough,

Too far from the normal, and not up to snuff,

Are exactly the places where genius appears,

At least in the judgement of more recent ears.

 

 

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