Modest Mussorgsky

An early orchestral work in which the nationalist ideals of the Mighty Five and the folktales of his childhood melt together.

• In the introduction, the strings race rapidly up and down in a shuddering tremolo, a passage that depicts witches and evil spirits gathering in the darkness.
• Midway through, the heavy chords poured out by the brass mark the moment the composer noted in his 1867 score as the 'procession of Satan.'
• Near the end, a solo clarinet sounds quietly after the dawn bell as the spirits scatter — but this ending belongs to later versions and Rimsky-Korsakov's edition; the original 1867 score ends instead with the witches' sabbath.
• The version most often performed today is the one Rimsky-Korsakov reworked after Mussorgsky's death, which makes it fascinating to compare against Mussorgsky's own rough-hewn original orchestration.

His signature opera, premiered in 1874 after rejection and revision, which took on the weighty themes of power and guilt.

• The bell motif and chorus that ring out in the coronation scene reveal both the weight of power and an underlying unease.
• Boris's solo monologue 'I have attained the highest power' uses the low bass voice to portray a man crushed by guilt, and bass singers regard it as the pinnacle of the role.
• In the final scene, the lament sung by the Holy Fool brings the opera to a close without victory or salvation — a rare ending for the operas of its day, commonly read as a symbol of the suffering people.
• The original 1869 version, the 1872 revision, and the edition Rimsky-Korsakov later re-orchestrated all differ from one another, and scholars and performers often discuss how greatly the impression changes depending on which version one hears.

A song cycle from the years when he balanced his job with composing, applying the ideal of 'singing as speech' to the voice of a child.

• Each song carries over the rhythm and inflection of a real child speaking directly into melody, so it sounds not like an adult's song but like an imitation of a child's voice.
• 'In the Corner' depicts in music a child's chatter making excuses over a mischievous cat, with the pleasure of the tone of voice shifting line by line.
• In 'With the Doll,' a child sings a lullaby to put a doll to sleep, with the same melody repeating in a rocking rhythm that creates the monotonous calm particular to lullabies.

A piano suite drawn from his memories of touring an exhibition of his friend Hartmann's work after Hartmann's sudden death, carrying both mourning and admiration.

• The 'Promenade' theme, recurring throughout the piece, represents the composer's own footsteps as he walks through the gallery, and its tempo and meter shift slightly from picture to picture.
• In 'Gnomus,' a limping, twisted rhythm depicts the movement of a grotesque figure.
• In 'Catacombs,' slow, heavy chords accumulate to carry his mourning for Hartmann, and he reportedly left a note in the score along the lines of 'Hartmann's skull speaks to me.'
• 'The Hut on Fowl's Legs (Baba Yaga)' uses a fast, rough rhythm to depict the witch's flight, and pianists consider it a notoriously finger-twisting passage.
• The final movement, 'The Great Gate of Kiev,' closes grandly with bell-like chords piling up layer upon layer, and it's worth listening to the original piano version alongside Maurice Ravel's orchestral arrangement and comparing the two.

Born out of his friendship with the poet Golenishchev-Kutuzov, this song cycle reveals the fear of and fascination with death he carried throughout his life.

• In 'Lullaby,' death approaches a mother putting her sick child to sleep and sings the lullaby in her place — the tender melody sounds all the more chilling for it.
• In 'Serenade,' death sings like a lover wooing a sick young woman, and the horror lurking behind the beautiful melody stands out all the more.
• In 'Trepak,' death lulls a drunken peasant collapsed in the snow to sleep with the rhythm of a lively Russian dance, a passage famous for mixing exhilaration with horror.
• In 'The Field Marshal,' death looks down over a battlefield and sings as if proclaiming victory over a march rhythm, forming the grandest and most commanding close of the four songs.

An opera he left unfinished at his death, later taken up by his friend Rimsky-Korsakov and, afterward, by Shostakovich.

• The overture 'Dawn on the Moscow River' depicts the sun rising over the river in a quietly flowing melody, standing in contrast to the fierce political unrest that follows.
• In the final scene, the chorus sung by the Old Believers as they walk into the flames of their own accord conveys the mournful yet majestic resonance of those who choose death for their faith.
• The orchestration, left unfinished at his death, was completed by Rimsky-Korsakov, and in the twentieth century Shostakovich revised it again, so that today the work can be heard in several different versions.