Modest Mussorgsky

Mussorgsky was born in the province of Pskov in western Russia and spent the first thirteen years of his life in the country, living with his parents. His mother was a fine pianist and it was she who taucht him to play the instrument. At the age of 13, he entered the Guards' Cadet School in St Petersburg, while continuing to study the piano, of which he became and outstanding player. He was passionately interested in literature and history and in 1857 met Mily Balakirev, who assumed responsibility for his musical and cultural education. It was at this point that Mussorgsky decided to resign his military commission and devote himself to music. Together with Balakirev, César Cui, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and Alexander Borodin, he founded the Mighty Handful, a group of like-minded composers who were united in their aim to create a distinctive nationalist school of Russian music. Mussorgsky himself was clearly the most forward-looking member of the group: his avowed desire to invent a new musical language and write works that "spoke directly to people" found early expression in his operas. Volatile by temperament and prey to nervous disorders and bouts of mysticism, he took to heavy drinking and entered a period of material and moral decline that resulted in his being forced to resign his government post in 1880. He died the following year from alcoholic epilepsy. His two most popular works remain Pictures at an Exhibition and the opera Boris Godunov.