Compositions by M. Musorgsky freely arranged for mixed choir a cappella

It was a rough bumpy ride of mine to this work. It is really so, for one is to break through thick and thin forcing way to the personality of Modest Petrovich Musorgsky.

Musorgsky’s genius is above times and epochs, he is larger than life. Therefore there rises the only unsolved question: isn’t it too bold interfere into the author’s original, or what is the degree of that force able to act inside the great composer’s opus, adopting it to new performing options. 

There is example: Maurice Ravel orchestrated “Pictures From the Exhibition”.

That was a wonderful, even divine choir-master Vladimir Vasilyevich Stolpovskikh to have inspired me.

He exactly managed to fascinate me by the idea of Modest Musorgsky’s compositions. You, my executants, are welcome to appreciate these results just singing them in concert halls.

Yakov Dubravin

Contents:

FOUR FRAGMENTS from the piano cycle “Pictures from the Exhibition”
     1. Promenade. Verses by E. Alexandrova
     2. Old Castle. Verses by V. Sokolov
     3. Bydlo. Verses by V. Sokolov
     4. Bogatyr Gates. Verses by E. Alexandrova
AS THE GARDEN’S BLOOMING ABOVE THE DON. Verses by A. Koltsov
WHITE-SIDED TWITTER (Joke). Verses by A. Pushkin
NAUGHTY CHILD. Verses by M. Musorgsky
GOAT. Verses by M. Musorgsky
OH, YOU, DRUNKEN CHAP! Verses by M. Musorgsky
WHERE ARE YOU, THE STAR? Verses by N. Grekov
JOYFUL HOUR. Verses by A. Koltsov
GOPAK. From the opera “Sorochinskaya Fair”
FLEA. Song of Mephistopheles from the poem “Faustus” by W. Goethe. Translated by A. Strugovshchikov