Night (Mussorgsky song) explained

"Night" (Ночь/Noch') is a Russian art song by composer Modest Mussorgsky. It is the composer's only full setting of a Pushkin verse, and one of only two Pushkin settings, along with the song "Magpie".^[1] The song exists in two versions, the original being written in 1864.^[2]

The text of the poem begins "Мой голос для тебя и ласковый и томный..", in English translation: "My voice for thee, my love, with languorous caresses, Disturbs the solemn peace the midnight dark possesses".^{[3] [4]} The poem was also set by Anton Rubinstein.

Selected recordings

• "Noch'" Galina Vishnevskaya London Symphony Orchestra, Igor Markevitch, recorded 26 August 1962
• Olga Borodina
• Joan Rodgers with Malcolm Martineau

Notes and References

1. Two Hundred Years of Pushkin, Volume 3 edited by Joe Andrew, Robert Reid p.160 "is based on Pushkin's dramatic chronicle, his only full setting of a Pushkin verse, Night,26 was quickly modified with his ..."
2. p.160 "Mussorgsky's other Pushkin song, Night, ... The first, using Pushkin's already very musical alexandrines, was written in 1864, but he later made a second version which he subtitled 'Fantasia', calling it an 'improvisation'."
3. Web site: ФЭБ: Пушкин. Ночь. — 1977 (текст). feb-web.ru.
4. Selected Lyric Poetry Alexander Pushkin - 2009 "Night : My voice for thee, my love, with languorous caresses Disturbs the solemn peace the midnight dark possesses"