Moussorgski

Summary

Dominique Pagani often comes back to Mussorgsky's end, picked up drunk in the gutter. He draws an argument from it: classical music is not the business of elites or of the rich1. Musically, he presents him as a very Russian composer, with a raw side. Together with Tchaikovsky, he stands for him as one of the two poles of the question of the "most Russian" composer2. He also links him to Debussy, between the Russian and French schools, and points out chords in Pictures at an Exhibition that are very close to Debussy's, who was then a child3. He describes this piano suite as punctuated by the promenade as a leitmotif and culminating in the Great Gate of Kiev4, and he recommends Richter's Sofia recording. In 2022, speaking about Ukraine, he notes that one of the most Russian works ends on Kiev: for him, this points to a shared surface rather than a dividing line5. From Boris Godunov, he takes a very modern use of liturgical archaisms and an opera whose main character is the people.

1. 1#4 Harnessed to confinitude11 Apr 2020 · 12:27
2. 2#11 Ukraine: mathematics unites men, politics divides them (Aristotle)24 Mar 2022 · 32:37
3. 3#11 Modal and tonal music24 Jan 2021 · 12:14
4. 4#9 Pictures at an Exhibition: art, seen from here or from the other side?10 Feb 2022 · 5:52
5. 5#10 Ukraine: from the problem of “edges” to the unleashing of war24 Feb 2022 · 1:07:44

Summary produced automatically from 12 of the passages below, to be reviewed; the numbers link to the moment in the session.