I have no use whatever for Mussorgsky. All in him is flabby and dull. He is, I think, a perfect idiot. Were he left to his own devices and no longer under your strict supervision, he would soon run to seed as all the others have done. There is nothing in him.

Yes, Mussorgsky is little short of an idiot.

They were very defective, teeming with clumsy, disconnected harmonies, shocking part-writing, amazingly illogical modulations or intolerably long stretches without ever a modulation, and bad scoring... what is needed is an edition for practical and artistic purposes, suitable for performances and for those who wish to admire Mussorgsky's genius, not to study his idiosyncrasies and sins against art.

Mussorgsky, you might very rightly say, was a hopeless case. In talent he is perhaps superior to all the other members of The BIg Five [a group of Russian composers who regularly met in St. Petersburg from 1856-70] 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.

Mussorgsky, in his vocal efforts, appears willfully eccentric. His style impresses the Western ear as barbarously ugly.

For the millions of fans who first learned that classical music can be as badass as any Iron Maiden hit through Bald Mountain, we'd just like to tell the shade of Mussorgsky happy birthday, and never mind what some of the most celebrated Russian composers said about you.

Their work ain't the background music for one of the best bosses in Kingdom Hearts. That beats Swan Lake in our book.