Russian folk musician biography death

Vladimir vysotsky fastidious steeds

Musical innovator, nationalist renegade and compulsive alcoholic, Modest Mussorgsky was a complex, troubled man. His work was central to the development of a Russian musical style, yet also distinct from that of his contemporaries. The result is music that is irregular, unpredictable and uncompromisingly earthy. Other composers admired his work but considered it poorly crafted, leading to numerous revisions in the years following his death.

Finding an effective structure for his works was a recurring problem, as was completing them.

Vladimir vysotsky cause of death

Of the six operatic projects he began, Boris Godunov was the only one he completed. But this is surely too harsh. Yet we should still be grateful to Rimsky-Korsakov for rescuing what exists of the unfinished operas Khovanshchina and Sorochinsky Fair from musical oblivion. He graduated four years later having gained little more than a lifelong predilection for alcohol.

In he joined the elite Preobrazhensky Regiment. The same year he met the year-old scientist Alexander Borodin, who was pursuing a parallel composing career in his spare time. Mussorgsky decided to continue alone. He took a low-paid job as a clerk and began formulating his own unique musical style based on the rhythms of the Russian language.

But from he went into creative overdrive. The first result was his orchestral masterpiece, A Night on the Bare Mountain. For music of this period only that of Berlioz rivals its sheer audacity and uncompromising invention. But it proved too much for Balakirev, who refused point blank to conduct it.