A Night on the Bare Mountain

Witches and spirits dance atop a magical mountain in Mussorgsky’s colourful tone poem. Mussorgsky drew on a Russian legend about a demonic gathering on the eve of midsummer day. The score was edited by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov after Mussorgsky’s death, and the work became very popular in this version. It also got a huge boost in 1940, when it was included in the Disney movie Fantasia. There, the sinister low brass figures invoke Satan, a winged silhouette shadowing the proceedings. Spirits rise from the grave and cavort to each of the lurid dance episodes before a distant church bell signals dawn, and the apparitions skulk away into the night. In the late 20th century, some conductors returned to Mussorgsky’s original version. The music here is more brutal and dissonant, the episodes juxtaposed rather than smoothly transitioned. Mussorgsky’s original version ends with an infernal climax. But he also made a later reworking of the score for choir, soloist and orchestra. This includes a serene daybreak ending that became the basis of Rimsky-Korsakov’s conclusion.