The way Mariana Lipovsek sings these highly dramatic songs seems almost like listening to an opera condensed to one voice and the piano. And the way Moussorgsky sets the texts to music is so natural; it is a lesson in rhetoric with its thousand nuances as we envision the multitude of characters in these short stories.

S. Prokofiev: Piano Sonatas nos. 2 - 7 - 8. Mikhail Pletnev. Deutsche Grammophon, 457588

As a student I used to rehearse next to a piano room where a friend of mine practiced Prokofiev’s 7th sonata. The irresistible ostinato motive of its last movement still haunts me and is always capable of making my blood instantly rush faster.

Modest Moussorgsky: Boris Godounov (1869 Version & 1872 Version) - Valery Gergiev / Kirov Opera & Orchestra. Philips, 462230

Do I really need to say something? It is so much better to just stay silent and listen over and over to the power of these two versions of the same opera as if one could secretly enter the mind of the composer and listen to this magnificent music from that hidden place.

The Art of the Mugham. Alim Qasimov. Ocora, 2001

This is how a perfect chant singer should be. Qasimov is ecstatic, yet never exaggerated, one almost feels understanding of the text in his mysterious language, and the music doesn’t seem performed by three men but by one being with three heads that feel the same blood pulsation.

Za Krizem - Chants Glagolitiques pour la Semaine Sainte - Ile de Hvar, Croatie. Les Chantres De Pharos. Arcana, A 318

These are my roots. The powerful singing of these musically illiterate Glagolitic cantors, their way of transmitting the texts and the atmosphere of Holy Week in Dalmatia still sometimes makes me weep with emotion.