Rio de Janeiro
``What a striking place! The bay, shut in on all sides, but spacious,
is surrounded by green-clad mountains topped by Corcovado, at
whose foot the city lies stretched. It was June-- the winter month
of the Southern Hemisphere. But what a wonderful winter under
the Tropic of Capricorn! 77 F.... The New World, the Southern Hemisphere,
a tropical winter in June! Everything was different, not the
same as with us in Russia.''
Borodin
``Borodin was an exceedingly cordial and cultured man, pleasant and
oddly witty to talk with. On visiting him I often found him
working in the laboratory which adjoined his apartment. When
he sat over his retorts filled with some colourless gas and distilled
it by means of a tube from one vessel into another, I used to tell
him that he was transfusing emptiness into vacancy.''
The appointment to the St. Petersburg Conservatory
``Realizing that I was totally unprepared for the proposed
appointment, I gave no definite answer and promissed to think
the matter over.... I the author of Sadko, Antar, and
The Maid of Pskov, compositions that were coherent and
well-sounding, compositions that the public and many
musicians approved, I was dilettante and
knew nothing, This I frankly confess and attest before the
world.... I was young and self-confident; my self-confidence was
encouraged by others and I joined the Conservatory.
...Thus having been undeservedly accepted at the
Conservatory as a professor, I soon became one of its best
and possibly its very best pupil, judging
by the quantity and value of the information it gave me!''
Bird's songs in Snow Maiden
``Some songlets of birds were borrowed for the dance of the birds...
One of the motives of Spring (in the Prologue and Act IV)
is the altogether accurately reproduced song of a bullfinch which
had lived rather long in our cage; only that our dear little
bullfinch sang it in F-sharp major, while I took it a tone lower
for the convenience of the violin harmonics.''
Moussorgsky's unfinished music
``If Moussorgsky's compositions are destined to live unfaded for
fifty years after their author's death (when all his works will became
the property of any and every publisher), such an archeologically
accurate edition will always be possible, as the manuscripts
went to the Public Library on leaving me. For the present, though, there
was need of an edition for performances, for practical artistic
purposes, for making his colossal talent known, and not for the
mere studying of his personality and artistic sins.''