Mussorgsky/Rimsky-Korsakov: Night on a Bare Mountain - Night on Bald Mountain.

2 years ago
12

The piece universally known as “Mussorgsky's Night on the Bare Mountain” is actually by Rimsky-Korsakov.

Night on a Bare Mountain, (Night on Bald Mountain), is a series of compositions by Modest Mussorgsky (1839–1881). Mussorgsky composed a "musical picture", St. John's Eve on Bald Mountain on the theme of a Witches Sabbath on Kupala Night which he completed on that very night, 23 June 1867.

Mussorgsky was proud of his work but, despite recasting it, in various forms it was never performed in any form during his lifetime.

In 1886, five years after Mussorgsky's death, Rimsky-Korsakov published an arrangement of the work, describing it as a "Fantasy for Orchestra". This fantasy is based on themes and ideas from
Mussorgsky’s original work, and it is Rimsky-Korsakov's version, presented here, that has achieved the lasting fame the piece deserves.

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