Symphonic poem Borodin's "In the Steppes of Central Asia" "powerful orchestral pictures, each unique in its composer's output". Titled a "musical portrait", "In the Steppes of Central Asia" evokes the journey of a caravan across the steppes. "Night on Bald Mountain", especially its original version, contains harmony that is often striking, sometimes pungent and highly abrasive; its initial stretches especially pull the listener into a world of uncompromisingly brutal directness and energy. Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov wrote only two orchestral works that rank as symphonic poems, his "musical tableau" "Sadko" (1867–92) and "Skazka" ("Legend", 1879–80), originally titled "Baba-Yaga". While this may perhaps be surprising,
Symphonic poem his "Le rouet d'Omphale", soon following it with three more, the most famous of which became the "Danse macabre" (1874). In all four of these works Saint-Saëns experimented with orchestration and thematic transformation. "La jeunesse d'Hercule" (1877) was written closest in style to Liszt. The other three concentrate on some physical movement—spinning, riding, dancing—which is portrayed in musical terms. He had previously experimented with thematic transformation in his program overture "Spartacus"; he would later use it in his Fourth Piano Concerto and Third Symphony. After Saint-Saëns came Vincent d'Indy. While d'Indy called his trilogy "Wallenstein" (1873, 1879–81) "three symphonic overtures",