Reconstructed Version of Khovanshchina
About the Versions of Rimsky-Korsakov and Shostakovich
Rimsky-Korsakov's version
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Khovanshchina can be regarded as Musorgsky's second and last completed opera and today can be staged in either of two versions: in the edition orchestrated and edited by Rimsky-Korsakov or the Shostakovich version (1959). Rimsky-Korsakov published his own version of the opera, based on the autograph piano score, two years after his friend and fellow composer's death. This is a revised orchestrated version, shortened in some places and expanded in others. Rimsky-Korsakov was convinced that his friend's exceptional musical talent marched hand in hand with a professional dilettantism, meaning his compositions required improvement. These additions encroached on every element of the work; in the case of the opera, even the dramatic structure was altered.
Shostakovich's Khovanshchina was prepared based on Pavel Lamm's 1931 edition which draws on Musorgsky's original manuscripts, although this sovereign Soviet composer also added numerous alterations and emendations to the autograph score, such as appending a conclusion to the end of Act II and an ad libitum postlude or quasi commentary to the end of Act V. The orchestration was dictated entirely by Shostakovich's own taste, ignoring the two extracts that Musorgsky orchestrated himself.
Idea of Reconstruction
The shifting demands of opera houses have also spawned numerous other versions of Khovanshchina since opera house producers and conductors generally treat repertoire works with relative freedom, especially those which have no fixed, immutable and authorised form. This is why I believe it is vitally important to create a reconstructed version of Khovanshchina. The key word in this work is reconstruction. I believe the essence of my task is to record such a version, gathering together and utilising all the existing relevant sources and information, producing a form that lies closest to the intentions of the composer.
Of course, the "reconstructed" Khovanshchina will itself be only another version alongside the existing two (and of course, the other lesser versions) since we cannot know for sure how Musorgsky would have orchestrated his opera had his death at the age of 42 not intervened.... Nonetheless, if my work can approach my stated objective, then this composer's version may play a clarifying role until such time as an even more fundamental, better reconstruction appears, based on fresher information and sources.
New Orchestration Based on Pavel Lamm's Edition
The most important source for my work has been Pavel Lamm's edition mentioned above, which appeared as Volume II. of the Musorgsky complete edition, edited by Lamm, and which was republished in an amended version by A. Dmitriev and A. Vulfson in 1976. This also contains the alterations of Shostakovich's revision, which I have naturally ignored. The entire piano score material of Khovanshchina can be found in these two volumes. Vulfson's notes that appear in the appendix to the 1976 edition of Lamm's Khovanshchina represent the most important base of information. An important source was the unfinished libretto of Khovanshchina first published in 1972 (Модест Петрович Мусоргский. Литературное наследие. Том 2).
The musical score of acts I-IV. is problem free since I followed the Lamm edition while observing Vulfson's notes, excising those details which Musorgsky clearly decided to remove in both the autograph and libretto. There is an autograph orchestral score for two extracts from Act III.: the source of Marfa's song is the Lamm complete edition (Volume VII., 2nd book, Moscow, 1931), while the Strelets' Chorus is unpublished, and I took this from the original manuscript.
Lost and Found Part of Khovanshchina Autograph
Lost and found autograph
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The truly problematic part of Khovanshchina is the second half of Act V. (from page 327 of Lamm's edition, commencing at rehearsal number 22). The autographs of the Marfa-Andrei Khovansky scene (the piano score and part score) have vanished without trace. The Lamm edition only presents the first half of these scenes from a dubious manuscript which only contains the vocal parts; the piano accompaniment is the work of Boris Asafiev.
Sovietskaya Muzika, 1981/3
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Aleksei Vulfson, editor of the 1976 volume, was the first to cast suspicion on this source. During his researches, he discovered that this manuscript did not exist, but came across an autograph which contained this scene's tenor solo, Marfa and Dosifey's final words and naturally, the number of rest bars in the tenor solo. Vulfson included this document at the end of his edition's appendix. Lamm certainly seems to have known of the existence of this manuscript, although he couldn't track it down by 1931 when the piano score was published which is why he created a Musorgsky "original" based on the vocal parts from the Rimsky-Korsakov version. Vulfson published his study on this incident and the newly discovered autograph in the March edition of Sovietskaya Muzika in 1981. Shostakovich incorporated the Lamm forgery into his own version together with the finale composed by Rimsky-Korsakov. For these reasons, serious doubts have surfaced regarding the authenticity of Act V. in his version.
Reconstruction of the Finale Act V
Page of the reconstructed scene
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In full knowledge of these circumstances, I had to attempt to reconstruct the second half of Act V., first of all the Marfa - Andrei Khovansky scene. The starting point for the work was the knowledge that Rimsky-Korsakov prepared his own version from the now lost original manuscript. If we superimpose the discovered parts autograph onto the score of the Rimsky-Korsakov scene, the two match pretty well. The length of the scene and the place and content of the tenor's entry is similar, as are the timing and content of Marfa's final words with respect to Dosifey's final word. The parts autograph can be used as a kind of code breaker, showing where Rimsky-Korsakov departed from the original, what was the original tonal structure of the original scene etc. After this, I reconstructed the scene based on the Rimsky-Korsakov version with the aid of the original autograph of parts (in the manner suggested by Vulfson in the study quoted above), together with the remaining finale fragment (Lamm, 334. I., rehearsal number 33.) In contrast to the Shostakovich finale, it resulted in an original Musorgsky conclusion in which there is no extraneous augmentation, replacement, improvement. In total, I added a strophe without chorus to the Chorus of Old Believers with just orchestra (I got the idea from the CD recording of the Mariinski Theatre production of Khovanshchina conducted by Gergiev.)
Work on the Orchestration
The reconstruction of the orchestration naturally has to be understood figuratively. This means that the composer's manuscript of two extracts must represent the starting point, and where possible, the whole of the opera must match their sonority. Since these two extracts amount to only a tiny fraction of the opera as a whole, I was forced to interpret the task of reconstruction more broadly. I studied all of Musorgsky's orchestrated works (included the unpublished ones), and although it was not possible to draw any far reaching conclusion, it was sufficient for me to draw boundaries for orchestrational possibilities: the only thing I knew for sure was what I could not do. My method was to "interrogate" the piano score, until it formed an orchestral sonority, and then I passed this imagined score thought the sieve of knowledge derived from a study of Musorgsky's orchestration. I did not strive for remarkably rich orchestral colour or effects, rather I wanted to be an unnoticed orchestrator. I wish the orchestra to always serve Musorgsky's grand dramatic concept and for nothing to act against it.
Besides the composer's score of the two extracts from Act III., I have included some ideas from the Rimsky-Korsakov and Shostakovich orchestrations in my own version. I have used the entire orchestration of the Act IV. Persian Dance from Rimsky-Korsakov's version (naturally, applied on Musorgsky's original music), since this fragment was performed in the composer's own lifetime in Rimsky-Korsakov's orchestration, which Musorgsky endorsed, so this has to be regarded as authentic. In the reconstructed scenes of Act V., I based much of my work on Rimsky-Korsakov's version, because this was also performed at a concert Rimsky conducted and he may have remembered the subsequently lost manuscript of this fragment and may or may not have had it at his disposal when working on Khovanshchina.
After many years of initial preparation, I worked on Khovanshchina for two years, completing the work in December 2000.
Janos Bojti
Budapest, June 2005