Classical Music Work of the Week - September 19, 2005

A Night On Bald Mountain is truly a scary piece of music. Inspired by Gogol’s story St. John's Eve and Baron Mengden’s play The Witches, the Russian composer, Mussorgsky, originally composed "St. John's Night on Bare Mountain" in 1867. After atesting that his work would never be changed or edited, his mentor Mili Balakirev, saw the score and was extremely unsatisfied. After ripping it from note to note, he told Mussorgsky that it would never be performed until it was fixed. Mussorgsky set aside the work, coming back to it time after time, but never becoming fully satisfied with his work. When Mussorgsky died in 1881, his work remained unfinished. In 1886, Mussorgsky's good friend and composer, Rimsky-Korsakov, re-orchestrated the "un-polished" piece of music. This version is what we hear today, made extremely popular by Disney's Fantasia.

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