Classical Music | Piano Music

Recorded on 05/03/2005, uploaded on 01/10/2009

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

Night on Bald Mountain            Modest Mussorgsky

Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky was a member of The Five, Mily Balakirev's group dedicated to "producing a distinctly Russian kind of music". Although Night on Bald Mountain was originally scored for orchestra, it is played here today in a piano transcription by the Russian composer and pianist Konstantin Tchernov.

Some interpret this composition as St. John being caught on top of a mountain during a violent storm, or in a struggle to reach the top as a test of his faith in God. The autograph score contains Mussorgsky's own programmatic titles for each of the work's four main sections: 1. Gathering of the witches, talking and gossiping; 2. Satan's ride to Hell; 3. Black Mass; 4. Witches' Sabbath. Mussorgsky uses dynamics and a deep understanding of how to create emotions and paint a picture with music. Occasionally, sections of what seems to be silliness appear, which may refer to the human ability to inject humor into any situation.

Mussorgsky either never completely finished the piece or it was seen as too dismal by fellow musicians, and consequently composer and friend Rimsky-Korsakov edited much of it, and upon Mussorgsky's death added the quiet ending section (representing church bells ringing and driving the satanic forces on the mountain back into Hell).     Sonya Bach

Courtesy of International Music Foundation.