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One of the first Russian tone poems, Night on Bald Mountain had its genesis in the late 1850s when Mussorgsky started sketches for the projected opera St. John’s Eve (1858), later changed to The Witch (1860) - based upon a scenario about a witches’ sabbath on St. John’s Eve. These were abandonded by the early 1860s but Mussorgsky contemplated a tone poem using the material featuring piano and orchestra along the lines of Liszt’s Totentanz. The work was finally completed on St. John’s Eve (June 23) of 1867 as an orchestra tone poem entited St. John’s Eve on the Bare Mountain. The symphonic poem was never performed in the composer’s lifetime. After rejection for performance, Mussorgsky reworked the material two more times for operatic projects that never materialized. After the composer’s death his friend Rimsky-Korsakov produced a new arrangement based on the last version composed for the opera Sorochintsy Fair, now often regarded as more of a fantasy on themes from the opera. Rimsky’s arrangement became very popular, especially after its use in the 1939 Walt Disney film Fantasia in a highly bowdlerized re-orchestration by Leopold Stowkowski. Rimsky’s setting is the work offered here - in an expertly researched edition prepared by Clinton F. Nieweg. Matching full score and orchestral parts are also available from Serenissima Music.
