Musorgsky, Khovanshchina. Reconstruction of the Orchestration
Orchestrated by Janos Bojti
North Hungarian Symphony Orchestra,
Conductor: László Kovács,
National Theater Miskolc, April 2001
Time: 5:53
Khovanshchina - the unjustly rarely played opera
Musorgsky is one of the most eminent composers of the 19th century Russian classical music. His last opera Khovanshchina, which remained without orchestration because of the composer's death, is an unjustly rarely played piece.
Questions concerning the orchestration of Khovanshchina
Here you can read about the work of the Musorgsky expert Janos Bojti and learn some important issues about Musorgsky's opera, Khovanshchina. Janos Bojti has been working on the reconstruction of the orchestration of Khovanshchina for decades, and he published his book on Musorgsky in Budapest, in 1997. Only two extracts of the orchestration of Khovanshchina were made in the composer's lifetime. After his death, the contemporary and friend of Musorgsky, Rimsky-Korsakov then, in the 20th century, Shostakovich orchestrated and revised Musorgsky's opera. The version of Rimsky-Korsakov and the one of Shostakovich are rather far from the spirit of the original piece. For this reason, the present day conductors and musical contributors of performances and CDs have executed many revisions on Khovanshchina. This home page gives information about the formation of a new Khovanshchina version nearest to the original.
Reconstructed orchestration, ready to be performed
Having been orchestrated Khovanshchina, Janos Bojti made use of the experiences derived from the original orchestrations of Musorgsky's symphonic works and of Boris Godunov, and utilized some sources published in the last decades - this way his reconstruction can be referred to as the nearest one to the original work. The Prelude of Khovanshchina has already been performed in the new orchestration in Miskolc, the whole opera is planned to be presented in Budapest in 2012.
Score and parts of Khovanshchina reconstruction are property of Janos Bojti, if you want to look at it or to use it, please apply to Mr Bojti under Contact menu