Modest Mussorgsky: “Art is a means to talk with people, but not a goal!”

The descendant of an old princely family, dating back to the Rurikovich, and the grandson of the serf Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky was born on March 21, 1839 in a family estate in the village of Karevo, Pskov province.

He began to study music in early childhood under the guidance of his mother and then a professional pianist, and so successfully that at the age of 7 he had already played the simple things of Franz Liszt and performed at home concerts. Nobody in the family thought about the boy’s professional music lessons, and at 10 he was taken to St. Petersburg with his older brother Filaret. After three years of training, he was enrolled in the School of Guards Liaison Officers and Cavalry Junkers. In St. Petersburg, he continued to seriously engage in music with a famous teacher, pianist Anton Gerke. He devoted his free time to military education to self-education - he studied languages, literature, art, history, philosophy.

It was at this time that his first musical composition was created and published - a piece for piano “Porte-enseigne polka”. He devoted his work to his classmates in the cadet school.

In 1856, Mussorgsky entered the service of the Preobrazhensky Guards Regiment. A brilliant military career opened before him, but his heart was not at the service — he organized a music club, visited theaters, opera and discussed the theory of music with friends. Acquaintance with the musicians Alexander Borodin, Alexander Dargomyzhsky, Caesar Cui and Miliy Balakirev had a decisive influence on him. In 1858 the young officer resigned.

His extremely intense composer work began. Hard work, searches, throwing, nervous breakdowns. The spirit of his musical creativity is improvisations and experiments, not always completed and successful, but always opened the way to something new. At first, Mussorgsky was attracted by large forms and "... not Russian plots, but common European, often historical and classical ...", according to the same Vladimir Stasov. He turned to ancient mythology ("Oedipus") and to eastern history, artistically embodied by Gustave Flaubert ("Salambo"), immersed in the intricacies of folk and personal destinies, but both operas remained unfinished. The composer realized that his element is Rus’.

Songs to the verses of Nikolai Nekrasov, the text of Alexander Ostrovsky, to his own words - about simple, destitute Russian people - sometimes born from an impressive composer of everyday scenes and images emerged. According to the essay Modest Mussorgsky, which is available on the Presidential Library’s portal, the composer “ ... in his autobiography, expressing the main idea of ​​his creative life, says: “Art is a means for talking with people, but not a goal!””.

In the early 60s, the financial situation of the Mussorgsky family fell into decay, which forced him to enter the service of the Engineering Department and to combine creativity with the routine work of an official in various institutions until the end of his life.

In 1867, Mussorgsky decided to write an opera on the text of The Marriage of Nikolai Gogol. The experiment was unsuccessful - the composer realized the impossibility of creating an opera on one recitative, without arias and choirs.

Not only the first major work of Mussorgsky finished, but also the peak of his opera work was Boris Godunov. The libretto was based on the tragedy of the same name by Alexander Pushkin and History of the Russian State by Nikolai Karamzin. The story of the opera entering the stage was not easy. In 1870, the Mariinsky Theater rejected the first edition of Boris Godunov - unconventional, lacking a large female role. However, the refusal went to the opera for the benefit: in the next two years later, the role of Marina Mniszek, the scene near Kromy, Polish scenes were added. “On January 24, 1874, the opera was staged for the first time. It represents the most perfect pearl of Russian national creativity, ”says the mentioned biographical essay Modest Mussorgsky.

The next years of the composer's life were marked by both creative successes, joys and successes, and a series of problems and misfortunes in his personal life and in everyday life. Moreover, his work and life were inseparable and closely intertwined. The famous piano cycle “Pictures from the Exhibition” was inspired by the posthumous exhibition of his just-deceased friend, artist Victor Hartmann.

The composer interrupted work on the new opera Khovanshchina, again on a Russian historical plot, for the sake of the comic opera Sorochinskaya Fair based on the story of Gogol. But the gloomy and hopeless life situation left no room for joy.

Extreme material need forced Mussorgsky to go on a tour of the south of Russia. Enthusiastic press reviews and magnificent southern nature inspired and inspired the composer, causing a creative upsurge, work on the Khovanshchina and Sorochinskaya Fair was continued, new ideas appeared.

The end of Mussorgsky’s life was tragic. After leaving the service only thanks to the financial assistance of friends, he was able to work on Khovanshchina (Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov finalized the opera) and Sorochinskaya Fair (completed by Caesar Cui). The composer's health has been undermined by troubles and hardships in recent years. There was an attack with him, and friends under a false name placed him in the Nikolaev military hospital. Just a few days before the composer's death, Ilya Repin managed to write his only lifetime portrait, a reproduction of which is on the postal card on the portal of the Presidential Library.

Modest Mussorgsky died at the age of 42 and was buried in the Tikhvin cemetery of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra. In Soviet times, during the reconstruction of the square in front of the laurel, the tombstone was transferred to the same cemetery at a new place nearby.