The Bogatyr Gates or The Great Gate of Kiev
from Pictures at an Expedition
Modest Mussorgsky (21 March 1839 – 28 March 1881)
Viktor Hartmann (5 May 1834 – 4 August 1873
The Bogatyr Gates or The Great Gate of Kiev
from Pictures at an Expedition
Modest Mussorgsky (21 March 1839 – 28 March 1881)
Viktor Hartmann (5 May 1834 – 4 August 1873
One of those Composers I have a great respect for but his music for some reason does not resonate with me. Didn't realise he had such a short life, I think he liked a tipple.
ReplyDeleteSame with me, Mark. His vita fascinates me more than his compositions.
DeleteSo, as you could tell, I posted this for another reason.
"...liked a tipple". More like a tragic alcoholic, I read.
DeleteTragic, indeed.
Delete"While Mussorgsky suffered personally from alcoholism, it was also a behavior pattern considered typical for those of Mussorgsky's generation who wanted to oppose the establishment and protest through extreme forms of behavior. One contemporary notes, "an intense worship of Bacchus was considered to be almost obligatory for a writer of that period. It was a showing off, a 'pose,' for the best people of the [eighteen-]sixties." Another writes, "Talented people in Russia who love the simple folk cannot but drink." Mussorgsky spent day and night in a Saint Petersburg tavern of low repute, the Maly Yaroslavets, accompanied by other bohemian dropouts. He and his fellow drinkers idealized their alcoholism, perhaps seeing it as ethical and aesthetic opposition. This bravado, however, led to little more than isolation and eventual self-destruction."