As a pianist, Mussorgsky was compared with Rubinstein. His piano ‘bells’ are often recalled, and even his enemies admitted that he excelled as an accompanist. He wasn’t a purist about it either, he banged away as a young man, not because he needed the money as I did, but just ‘for company’. When he was older, he did marvellous improvisations of humorous scenes, for instance, a young nun playing 'A Maiden’s Prayer' with great feeling on an untuned piano.