Russian composers often have a flair for conceiving works of extraordinary character and quality almost ‘without trying’. Tchaikovsky found inspiration itself a force so implacable that, ‘if it continued unbroken, survival, even for a single day, would not be possible’. His contemporary, Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky, could, when his imagination was truly fired, pour out music that is unprecedented and powerful as any other from the later 19th century.

Sadly, however, flaws in Mussorgsky’s own character denied him fulfilment of his true potential. Born in 1839, he was taught the piano by his mother. However, his family intended him for the army, and in 1856 he became an officer in a Guards’ Regiment (he resigned two years later). Though he had already shown interest in composition he did not take...