From Publishers Weekly
Brown, author of the standard biography of Tchaikovsky and professor emeritus of musicology at the University of Southampton, brings his many years of Russian music writing to this biography of Russian composer Musorgsky. Most famous for his opera Boris Godunov and his orchestral piece St. John's Night on the Bare Mountain (made popular as the climax of Disney's Fantasia), Musorgsky was a member of a group of nationalist composers often called "the Mighty Handful," whose members included Tchaikovsky. Brown devotes major chapters of his book to the composition and music of Musorgsky's operas, such as the various versions of Boris as well as the unfinished Khovanshchina and Sorochintsky Fair, which were worked on by other composers after his death. Brown's deep interest lies in the music rather than the man, for he pays little interest to Musorgsky's medical problems, especially the "dementia" and depressions of his early years, which Brown considers to be the results of the composer's alcoholism, a disease that killed him at the age of 42. And while Brown does not have the rhetorical panache of Richard Taruskin (Musorgsky), he refrains from musicological jargon or overly technical musical analyses, bringing together a solid biography of the composer. 3 line illustrations and 18 halftones not seen by PW.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Modest Mussorgsky (1839-81) was raised in a middle-class rural family, which moved to St. Petersburg to place the boys in military school. Mussorgsky's true passion was music, however, and he soon joined Balakirev's famous circle of composer friends. He composed when his bipolarism would fill him with energy and inspiration, writing several operas, including
Boris Godunov and
Kovanshchina, to his own librettos; many songs; the masterpiece
Pictures at an Exhibi tion and other piano pieces; and choral and instrumental works, including
St. John's Night on the Bare Mountain, made famous in Disney's
Fantasia as
Night on Bald Mountain. He also served as piano accompanist to various singers on concert tours. There are many gaps in the original documentation of his life, obliging Brown to approach the man through analysis of his music and song texts. Consequently, those who know music well and are keenly interested in Mussorgsky's compositional process as well as how the events in his chaotic life influenced him will best appreciate the book.
Alan HirschCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
