ASAFYEV Boris Vladimirovich (penname Igor Glebov) (1884, St. Petersburg - 1949), music theorist, composer, People"s Artist of the USSR (1946), member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1946). Asafyev graduated from the Faculty of History and Philosophy of St. Petersburg University (1908) and the Conservatory (1910). In 1910 he accepted an appointment as concertmaster of the Mariinsky Theatre Ballet, and concurrently wrote critical reviews for Music Journal and a number of other periodicals. In 1919-30 Asafyev worked in the Institute of the History of Arts, and co-operated with the Bolshoy Drama Theatre and Old St. Petersburg Society. In 1925 Asafyev was awarded professorship and began teaching at the Conservatory. One of the leading music theorists, he approached music art within a philosophic and socio-cultural context. In the 1930-50s he was also a celebrated composer, creating 28 ballets, 11 operas, 4 symphonies, numerous chamber music pieces and music for theatre performances. The State Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre performances of The Flames of Paris (1932) and The Fountain of Bakhchisaray (1934) won broad recognition. Besides, the State Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre gave performances of his ballets Lost Illusion (1935), Partisans" Days (1937), and Christmas Eve (1938). Maly Opera and Ballet Theatre (see Mussorgsky Opera and Ballet Theatre) staged The Prisoner of the Caucasus (1938) and Ashik-Kerib (1940). In 1941-43 during the siege of Leningrad Asafyev wrote an essay series entitled Thoughts and Contemplations.” The chapter of the series entitled On Russian Painting was published in Leningrad and Moscow in 1966. In 1943 he moved to Moscow and in 1948 was elected Chairman of the Composers’ Union of the USSR. Asafyev was awarded the Stalin Prize (1943, 1948). He was born in the house at 139 Nevsky Prospect, and lived at 147 Nevsky Prospect, in 1914-17 - at 10 Mokhovaya Street, in 1922 - at 25 Konyushennaya Street, in 1933-43 - at 6 Truda Square (memorial plaque).

References: Орлова Е. М. Б. В. Асафьев: Путь исследователя и публициста. Л., 1964.

A. L. Porfiryeva.

MUSSORGSKY Modest Petrovich (1839-1881, St. Petersburg), composer. Lived in St. Petersburg from 1849, he studied at St. Petrischule and the Guards and Cavalry Cadets College in 1852-56, situated at the present-day 54 Lermontovsky Avenue. After leaving the school he was enlisted in Preobrazhensky Life-guards Regiment, to resign in 1858. He met and became a close friend of A. P. Borodin and M. A. Balakirev in 1856-57 to study composition under the latter and join the Mighty Five. A remarkable pianist, Mussorgsky was the life and soul of all music parties and salons. He made acquaintance with V. I. Lamansky, N. I. Kostomarov, K. D. Kavelin, and I. S. Turgenev and visited the so-called Stasov family's Sunday meetings, Balakirev's Wednesday meetings, C. A. Cui's Thursday meetings, and A. S. Dargomyzhsky's music parties. Close friends since the early 1870s, he and N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov lived together at 11 Panteleymonovskaya Street (today, Pestelya Street) until Mussorgksy rented a flat at 6 Shpalernaya Street (memorial plaque). After the composer died, Rimsky-Korsakov completed his opera Khovanschina, staged by the Amateur Circle of Music and Drama in 1886, and revised Boris Godunov on his own, which was first performed by the Society of Music Collections at the Grand Hall of the Conservatory in 1896 and played instead of the original version till the mid-1950s. His contemporaries would not recognize Mussorsky's innovation, his Boris Godunov was rejected twice by the Board of the Imperial Theatres and heavily distorted to be staged at Mariinsky Theatre and soon withdrawn. His Nursery, Sunless, Songs and Dances of Death, and Pictures at an Exhibition, though masterpieces of chamber music composed in 1872-78, were not really recognised by performers or audiences until the early 20th century. Mussorgsky lived in poverty and drank a lot, which brought to a sudden decline in his health. He died of erysipelas (also known as St. Anthony's fire) in the Nikolaevsky Military Hospital and was buried in the Necropolis of Artists. Mussorgsky's name was given to a music school and Maly Opera and Ballet Theatre (today, Opera and Ballet Theatre). A bust of Mussorgsky was placed in front of the former Guards and Cavalry Cadets College in 1916. A festival was held at Mariinsky Theatre in 1989, declared Mussorgsky's Year by UNESCO, to play all his operas, symphonies, and chamber compositions.

References: Орлова А. А. Труды и дни М. П. Мусоргского: Летопись жизни и творчества. М., 1963; Ее же. Мусоргский в Петербурге. Л., 1974; М. П. Мусоргский в воспоминаниях современников. М., 1989.

A. L. Porfiryeva.