Modest Mussorgsky - Sunless for Baritone and Piano (1874) [Score-Video]

Modest Mussorgsky - Sunless for Baritone and Piano (1874)

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[nickdryad]

Wonderful. What a thing to discover so late in life. Was watching the Documentary San Soliel and the narrator referred to this.

[JohnSpawn]

• "В четырех стенах" ("Within four walls") – D major 0:04

A tiny room, quiet and pleasant,

An impenetrable darkness, irresponsive darkness;

A deep thought, a sorrowful song;

A treasured hope in the beating heart;


Speedy flight of moment after moment;

A petrified glance at a far-away happiness;

Plenty of doubt, plenty of endurance.

Here it is, my night, night of solitude.



• "Меня в толпе ты не узнала" ("Thou didst not know me in the crowd") – D major 1:58

You have not recognized me in the crowd,

Your glance did not say anything.

But I felt wonder and fright

When I caught it:


It was only a moment;

But believe me, within it I re-lived again

All the delights of past love,

All the bitterness of oblivion and tears!

• "Окончен праздный шумный день" ("The noisy festival day is ended") – C major 2:58

Over is the idle and clamorous day;

Human life has fallen silent and a-slumber.

Everything is quiet. The shadow of the May night

Embraces the sleeping capital.


But sleep escapes from my eyes.

And by the rays of the next dawn

My imagination is leafing through

The pages of the lost years.


As if again breathing in the poison

Of spring's amorous dreams,

I resurrect in my soul the stream

Of hopes, surges, illusions...


Alas, those are only ghosts!

I am bored with this dead crowd,

And the noise of their old chatter

Already has no power over me.


Only one shadow, the only one of all,

Appeared to me, breathing with love, and,

Like a true friend of the past days,

Bent down by the bedstead.


And bravely I gave to her alone

All my soul in a silent tear,

Unseen by no one, full of happiness,

In a tear I saved for so long!

• "Скучай" ("Boredom: For the album of a fashionable young lady") – B minor 6:52

Be bored. You were created for boredom.

Without burning feelings there is no joy,

As there is no reunion without separation,

As without struggle there are no victories.


Be bored. Be bored listening to words of love,

Immersed in the stillness of your empty heart,

Responding with a fake greeting

To the truth of an innocent dream.


Be bored. From birth to the grave

Your path is written beforehand:

Drop by drop you'll waste your powers,

Then you'll die, and God be with you...

And God be with you!

• "Элегия" ("Elegy") – B minor, ending in F-sharp minor 9:08

In the mist the night is in slumber. Silent star

Flickering, lonely, through the veil of clouds.

Sorrowfully ringing their bells in the distance,

Herds of grazing horses.

As night clouds my changing thoughts

Fly above me, disturbed and gloomy;

There are gleams of hopes in them, which were once dear,

Which are long lost, long dead.

There are regrets in them... and tears.

Thoughts rush along endlessly;

At times, transformed into features of a loved face,

They call for me, awakening in my soul former dreams again,

At times, merged into black darkness, full of silent threat,

Frighten my timid mind with the future's struggle,  

And I hear in the distance life's discordant noise,

Laughter of the soulless crowd, the muttering of treacherous feuding,

The irrepressible whisper of life's banality,

And the grim ringing of death!..

A rising star, as if full of shyness,

Is hiding her bright face in a joyless mist,

Like my future, mute and impenetrable.

• "Над рекой" ("By the River") – C-sharp major 13:04

Pensive moon crescent, far-away stars

Admiring the waters from a blue sky.

I look in silence at the deep waters;

My heart senses magical secrets in them.

They splash mysteriously, tender-caressing waves;

There is much mystical power in their muttering.

I hear boundless thoughts and passions...

Unknown voice, which stirs my soul,

Caresses, frightens, and evokes doubts.

When it commands me to listen -- I can't move;

When it drives me away -- I want to run in fear;

When it calls into the depths -- I want to jump without hesitation.

[onaypetrof]

0:04/1:56 Fra quattro pareti
1:58/2:56 "I tuoi occhi"
2:58/6:51 "I giorni di festa son finiti"
6:52/9:07 Tedio
9:08/13:04 Elegia
13:04/18:19 Sul fiume

Lieder di M. Mussorgsky (1874) su testi di Arsenij Goleniščev-Kutuzov

[ladymacbethofmtensk]

Nobody would match this for utter bleakness until Pēteris Vasks.