Mussorgsky Khovanshchina

 Day 84

Mussorgsky Khovanshchina

Soloists

Kirov Opera

Valery Gergiev

I conclude my exploration of The Five with the figure who is generally considered to be the greatest of the mighty handful - Mussorgsky. I suppose that like most people I first came across him via Night on a Bare Mountain, though as we have come to realise that version of that work that we usually here owes as much to Rimsky as it does to Mussorgsky. It is symptomatic of the fairly chaotic state in which the composer left his works.

This opera is typical. The piano score is more or less finished but the end is missing. Almost none of the music is orchestrated. So various hands have been involved in making performance versions, including (inevitably) Rimsky, Stravinsky, Ravel and Shostakovich. 

This recording uses the Shostakovich orchestration but I was following it with a full score of the Rimsky version so it was fascinating to see the different approaches of the two later composers. Rimsky made several cuts and was fairly free in the way in which he revised the vocal lines and in some cases the harmonies. Shostakovich sets the vocal score more or less exactly as Mussorgsky left it. Their orchestration choices are fascinating. I did notice in many places Shostakovich gave material to the strings that Rimsky gave to the woodwind, and vice versa.  I wonder whether that was a deliberate choice by the younger man to create a different sound world.  Only once or twice did I feel that Shostakovich moved from Mussorgsky’s sound world into his own - there was a side drum addition at one point which could have come out of any of the Shostakovich symphonies.

What wonderful music this is.  It has all of the characteristics of Russian opera that you would expect, big set pieces, marvellous choral writing, folk tune, religious processions and chanting and real melodic distinction. The story is impossibly complex and in reality it is best thought of as a series of tableau rather than a coherent narrative. And how impressive the bass singers were on this recording - those massive sonorous voices which can fill a vast space with ease are so characteristic of Russian opera - for all their other merits western bases simply cannot compete when it comes to this repertory.

And what of the ending?  Mussorgsky didn’t complete the opera but did suggest that an ancient folk melody might be used. Shostakovich writes a very impressive ending based on material heard early in the opera which brings the piece to an epic conclusion. I also listened to the Stravinsky ending. This is much more faithful to what Mussorgsky’s intentions seem to have been (though there is no certainty in the matter) - the main tune in the chorus just fades away to nothing. Both endings in the very different way are highly effective. This opera will always be a problem piece but there is some hugely impressive music here - the contrast with the rather neat and polite Cui from yesterday couldn’t be more stark.