Mussorgsky - Khovantchina - Khaikin

Mussorgsky

Khovantchina

Mark Reizen, Bass
Boris Preidkov, Bass
Ivan Nechayev, Tenor
Vladimir Ulyanov, Tenor
Ivan Shashkov, Baritone
Sofia Preobrazhenskaya, Mezzo-Soprano


Chorus and Orchestra of the Kirov Opera &
Ballet Theater of Leningrad
Boris Khaikin

(Period Records, 1970's; originally recorded in
the USSR, 1946)
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"So long as the people cannot make out what is being done with it, so long as it does not itself will what is to happen to it - it is still just where it was."

- Modest Mussorgsky

From the notes for the first recording made of Khovantchina:

"Who then is the main character of Khovantchina? ... in the broadest sense it is Tzar Peter who never appears on stage. There is, however, another logical candidate - the Russian people without whom neither Peter, nor Dosifei, nor Khovansky can accomplish anything. Mussorgsky does not think of the protagonist as one who necessarily acts of his own free will and with conscious knowledge of what he is doing. The people here, as in Boris, are always being manipulated by forces they cannot divine. At the conclusion of Boris, when the simpleton laments, 'Poor people of Russia', we are hearing the voice of Mussorgsky. His own words in a letter bear this out: 'So long as the people cannot make out what is being done with it, so long as it does not itself will what is to happen to it - it is still just where it was. Public benefactors play their part magnificently, win glory and record it, but the people still groans and drinks to stifle its groans, and groans all the louder, and is exactly where it was before.' It was with this in mind that he called Khovantchina a musical folk drama."

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LP transfers of above material. Includes cover, label,
notes and English libretto.