Night on Bald Mountain 25 December 1858, has been interpreted as an indication of Mussorgsky's intent to write an opera on the subject of Gogol's short story "St. John's Eve" (, "Vecher nakanune Ivana Kupala", "St. John's Eve"). Gogol's tale contains the elements of witchcraft common to other stories in the "Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka" collection, but does not feature a witches' sabbath. No further plans for this project were mentioned. The theme of a witches' sabbath, the central theme in all subsequent "Night on Bald Mountain" projects, appears to have been derived from the nonextant play "The Witch" (, "Ved′ma") by
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