Night on Bald Mountain Night on Bald Mountain Night on Bald Mountain (), also known as Night on the Bare Mountain, is a series of compositions by Modest Mussorgsky (1839–1881). Inspired by Russian literary works and legend, Mussorgsky composed a "musical picture", "St. John's Eve on Bald Mountain" () on the theme of a witches' sabbath occurring on St. John's Eve, which he completed on that very night, 23 June 1867. Together with Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov's "Sadko" (1867), it is one of the first tone poems by a Russian composer. Although Mussorgsky was proud of his youthful effort, his mentor, Miliy Balakirev, refused to perform
Night on Bald Mountain by [[V. Bessel and Co.]]]] Rimsky-Korsakov's edition was completed in 1886, and published in the same year by [[V. Bessel and Co.]]. It received its premiere on 15 October 1886 in [[St. Petersburg]]'s Kononov Hall, performed by the orchestra of the [[Russian Symphony Concerts]]. Rimsky-Korsakov conducted the performance himself, and gives the following account of it in his memoirs, "Chronicle of My Musical Life" (1909): The orchestration of "A Night on Bald Mountain", which had baffled me so long, was finished for the concerts of [the 1886/87] season, and the piece, given by me at the first concert in a