Biography
Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky was born on 21 March 1839 on the Karevo estate in Pskov Governorate and died on 28 March 1881 in Saint Petersburg. He received early piano lessons, attended the Petrischule and then the Cadet School of the Guards in Saint Petersburg, before giving up his military commission in 1858 to devote himself to music. From 1858 he studied with Mily Balakirev and became a member of The Mighty Handful, a group of Russian composers around Balakirev, César Cui, Alexander Borodin and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov who sought to create a distinctly Russian music independent of Western European conservatory tradition. Alongside his artistic work, Mussorgsky held various civil-service posts; growing alcoholism dominated his final years and led to his dismissal from government service in 1880. With works such as the opera Boris Godunov, the piano cycle Pictures at an Exhibition, and the unfinished operas Khovanshchina and The Fair at Sorochyntsi, he is regarded as one of the most original and influential Russian composers of the nineteenth century.
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