“My music must be an artistic reproduction of human speech in all its finest shades. That is, the sounds of human speech, as the external manifestations of thought and feeling must, without exaggeration or violence, become true, accurate music.”

-Modest Mussorgsky

“Mussorgsky you very rightly call a hopeless case. In talent he is perhaps superior to all the [other members of The Five], but his nature is narrow-minded, devoid of any urge towards self-perfection, blindly believing in the ridiculous theories of his circle and in his own genius. In addition, he has a certain base side to his nature which likes coarseness, uncouthness, roughness. He flaunts his illiteracy, takes pride in his ignorance, mucks along anyhow, blindly believing in the infallibility of his genius. Yet he has flashes of talent which are, moreover, not devoid of originality.”

-Tchaikovsky, in a letter to his patroness Nadezhda von Meck.

“In poetry there are two giants, rough Homer and fine Shakespere. In music likewise we have two giants, Beethoven, the thinker, and the superthinker Berlioz.”

-Modest Mussorgsky

“I have no use whatever for Mussorgsky. His views may tally with mine, but I have never heard him express an intelligent idea. All in him is flabby and dull. He is, it seems to me, a thorough idiot.”

-Vladimir Stasov, Russian music critic

“I regard the people as a great being, inspired by a single idea. This is my problem. I strove to solve it in this opera.”

-Modest Mussorgsky, regarding his magnum opus, the opera Boris Godunov

"God grant that our Slav guests may never forget today's concert. God grant that they may forever preserve the memory of how much poetry, feeling, talent, and intelligence are possessed by the small but already mighty handful of Russian musicians." 

-the origin of the term “Might Handful”, from a review by Stasov of a concert in 1867 featuring works by Balakirev and others in the group.

“Art is not an end in itself, but a means of addressing humanity.”

-Modest Mussorgsky

“Music is a pastime, a relaxation from more serious occupations.”

-Alexander Borodin

‘Balakirev, who had never had any systematic course in harmony and counterpoint and had not even superficially applied himself to them, evidently thought such studies quite unnecessary.... An excellent pianist, a superior sight reader of music, a splendid improviser, endowed by nature with a sense of correct harmony and part-writing, he possessed a technique partly native and partly acquired through a vast musical erudition, with the help of an extraordinarily keen and retentive memory, which means so much in steering a critical course in musical literature. Then, too, he was a marvelous critic, especially a technical critic. He instantly felt every technical imperfection or error, he grasped a defect in form at once.”

-Rimsky-Korsakov on Balakirev

“I have made a thorough study of Boris Godunov (Mussorgsky’s master piece opera)…I consign it from the bottom of my heart to the devil; it is the most insipid and base parody on music.”

-Tchaikovsky in a letter to his brother Modest, 1874

“Night on Bald Mountain by Mussorgsky is as hideous a thing as we have ever heard…an orgy of ugliness and an abomination. May we never hear it again!”

-from the Musical Times, London, 1898

“Rimsky-Korsakov—what a name! It suggests fierce whiskers stained with vodka!”

-from the Musical Courier, New York, 1897

“The Russians have captured Boston! …This Scheherazade engagement began with a bombardment of full orchestra, under cover of which the woodwinds advanced on the right. The violins now made a brilliant sortie on the left flank of the main body. It was a magnificent charge; at one time the concertmaster was quite alone, but his cavalry soon rallied around him. A furious volley of kettledrums followed, while
General Gericke (conductor) brought up the trombone reserves and the remaining brasses. At this the entire audience—including some very big guns—surrendered.”

-from the Boston Daily Advertiser, 1905

“The stratification of Russian society had repercussions in music. Not only did musicians belong to the lowest rank, but their calling had no official status, no place in the hierarchy. Whereas painters, sculptors, and actors could lay claim to the title of ‘free artist’, a title that carried a number of privileges, including exemption from the poll tax and from military service, musicians had no more rights than peasants.”

from A History of Russian Music, by Francis Maes

“His little uniform was spic and span, close-fitting, his feet turned outwards, his hair smoothed down and greased, his nails perfectly cut, his hands well-groomed like a lord’s. His manners were elegant, aristocratic: his speech likewise, delivered through somewhat clenched teeth, interspersed with French phrases, rather precious. There was a touch—though very moderate—of foppishness. His politeness and good manners were exceptional. The ladies made a fuss of him. He sat at the piano and, throwing up his hands coquettishly, played with extreme sweetness and grace extracts from Trovatore, Traviata, and so on, and around him there buzzed in chorus: ‘Charming, délicieux!’ And suchlike. I met Modest Petrovich three or four times at Popov’s in this way, both on duty and at the hospital.”

-a sketch of Mussorgsky by Borodin, written only days after Mussorgsky’s death in 1881

“I became acquainted with Mussorgsky at the end of 1878 when he as yet gave no impression of going downhill; he was neatly, though not fashionably dressed, and walked with his head held proudly which, with his characteristic hairstyle, gave him a lively appearance. After this, he quickly started to let himself go, appeared not always in good order, and talked mostly about himself.”

-reminiscences by the composer Ippolitov-Ivanov regarding Mussorgsky