Ivan E. Levashev
Gnesin Russian Academy of Music, Moscow, Russia,
ivann.levashev@mail.ru, https://orcid.org/ 0009-0007-8215-030X
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| Abstract: The article examines the unfinished Sonata in C major for Piano four-hands by M. P. Mussorgsky, which has not yet been the subject of detailed scientific study. The object of consideration is the composer’s autograph, which is kept in the Russian National Library. A textual analysis of the features of piano writing, the texture of the presentation, handwritten markings and marginalia suggest that we are dealing either with an arrangement of an orchestral opus for piano, or (which, in our opinion, is more convincing) with the keyboard version of a future orchestral score. The experience of the Russian composer corresponds to that of C. Debussy’s unfinished Symphony in B minor, which survives only as a piano arrangement for four hands. Both works are also the only examples of the treatment of the sonata form and the sonata-symphonic cycle as a whole in the legacy of Russian and French composers.
Keywords: M. P. Musorgsky, Sonata for piano four-hands, N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov, A. N. Rimsky-Korsakov, P. A. Lamm, C. Debussy
For citation: Levashev I. E. Formation of M. P. Musorgsky’s orchestral intellection: A Four-hand Sonata in C major as a potential Symphony in C. Scholarly papers of Gnesin Russian Academy of Music. 2025;(3):110-126. (In Russ.). DOI: 10.56620/2227-9997-2025-3-110-126
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