Night on the Bare Mountain

views updated

Night on the Bare Mountain (Ivanova noch na lisoy gore, St John's Night on the Bare Mountain). Orch. work by Mussorgsky inspired by witches' sabbath in Gogol's story St John's Eve. Comp. 1867 for orch., rev. as choral piece for inclusion in opera Mlada, 1872, again rev. as choral introduction to Act 3 of Sorochintsy Fair, 1874. This final version was freely rev. and orch. by Rimsky-Korsakov, 1908, and it is this version which is well-known, though it is scarcely accurate to describe it as by Mussorgsky.