Prelude to Act I of Khovanshchina: “Dawn on Moscow River”

orchestrated by Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908)

Though surely the most diligent and most effective of all musical executors, Rimsky-Korsakov gets few thanks these days for his work on the Mussorgsky legacy. It is true that his version of the unfinished opera, Khovanshchina, which he not only orchestrated but also reconstructed to some extent, sounds more like Rimsky-Korsakov than Mussorgsky in places. The version completed by Shostakovich in 1959 is certainly more truthful in that respect. On the other hand, it would have taken far longer than five years to bring Khovanshchina to the stage if Rimsky hadn’t taken responsibility for it. His scoring of the Prelude to the first act has been instrumental, moreover, in making it almost as popular, in its very different way, as his version of the same composer’s A Night on the Bare Mountain.

The structure of the Khovanshchina Prelude, unlike that of the opera which follows, is simplicity itself: an introduction, three statements of a theme - which must be one of the most beautiful of all Russian melodies - and a coda. Described by Mussorgsky himself as “Dawn on Moscow River,” it was intended to give the impression of early-morning smoke drifting from the chimneys, the crowing of cocks, the ringing of matins bells, and the reflection of the rising sun on the domes of the Kremlin. The musical imagery is so poetic that, no less in Rimsky’s scoring than anyone else’s, it achieves just that.

Gerald Larner©

orchestrated by Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975)

“I revere Mussorgsky,” Shostakovich is quoted as saying. In fact, he felt that he had such a “special relationship” with “one of the greatest of Russian composers” that, while respecting the enormous amount of work done by Rimsky-Korsakov on Mussorgsky’s behalf - notably in his editions of Boris Godunov and Khovanshchina - he resented it too. “I suppose the fact that I orchestrated the Songs and Dances of Death as well as Boris and Khovanshchina proves that I am jealous of Rimsky-Korsakov - that is, that I wanted to surpass him when it came to Mussorgsky.”

It is generally accepted that, in matching the sound to the material, Shostakovich’s version of Khovanshchina - only fragments of which were orchestrated by Mussorgsky himself - does indeed surpass Rimsky-Korsakov’s.[*] That much is clear from the Prelude to the first act, even though it was in Rimsky’s scoring that the piece has become almost as popular, in its very different way, as his version of A Night on the Bare Mountain.

The structure of the Khovanshchina Prelude, unlike that of the opera which follows, is simplicity itself: an introduction, three statements of a theme - which must be one of the most beautiful of all Russian melodies - and a coda. Described by Mussorgsky himself as “Dawn on Moscow River,” it was intended to give the impression of early-morning smoke drifting from the chimneys, the crowing of cocks, the ringing of matins bells, and the reflection of the rising sun on the domes of the Kremlin. The musical imagery is so poetic and the scoring so apt that it achieves just that.

Gerald Larner©

[*ideally, check this out via score or recording]