Mussorgsky: Khovanshchina

Khaykin:cnd/Soloists of Stat

Composed by: MUSSORGSKY..

Awarded the Prix “Michel Hofmann” du Disque Academie Charles Cros in France in 1976, and First Prize for the section of foreign recordings in Japan in 1975! Famous critic Vladimir Stasov, a close friend of Mussorgsky, brought the story of Khovanshchina to his attention, and the composer dedicated this work to him. Mussorgsky began to compose the opera in the summer of 1872, when Boris Godunov had not been completed. He was engrossed in the new opera, and had every reason to say, “I am living in Khovanshchina like I used to be in Boris.” Mussorgsky wrote the libretto himself, without relying on a literary source. He wrote in one of his letters that he was possessed with one thought—“to tell people a new word of friendship and love, a direct word and one as wide as the Russian fields, a word resonating with the truth from a humble musician yet a fighter for the right idea of the art.” He said this word in his great works, among which the popular musical drama Khovanshchina takes one of the highest places.