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 Saturdays 22 and 29 June, new style. Upon our arrival in Paris, rehearsals commenced. The orchestra, which proved to be excellent, the men being amiable and painstaking, had been borrowed from [[Édouard Colonne|Colonne]]. Their playing in the concerts was fine... The success was considerable, with plenty of applause, but the attendance was not large. "Night on Bald Mountain" was performed at the second concert, on 29 June 1889, where it followed [[Alexander Borodin|Borodin]]'s 'Polovtsian Dances' and 'Polovtsian March' from "[[Prince Igor]]" in the second half of the program. Rimsky-Korsakov later mentions another performance of the piece, taking place on 25