Composer of the Week - Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky (1839-1881) - Episode 3

Donald Macleod explores the life and work of Modest Mussorgsky. He concentrates on the fruits of a single year, which was perhaps Mussorgsky's most productive - 1874. In the summer of this year he composed two vastly different works: Sunless, a hauntingly beautiful, but bleakly pessimistic song cycle, and Pictures at an Exhibition, which ranks amongst his most positive, affirmative music. Ballet of the Unhatched Chicks (Pictures at an Exhibition) - arr for Moog synthesiser Tomita (keyboard) RCA PD89381 Tr 9 Sunless (1874) Marjana Lipovsek (mezzo-soprano) Graham Johnson (piano) Sony SK 66 858 Trs 8-13 Pictures at an Exhibition (1874) Vladimir Ashkenazy (piano) Decca 425 045-2 Trs 1-6.