Anatoly Liadov Baba Yaga, Op. 56 HD

Anatoly Liadov BabaYaga, for orchestra, Op. 56 (1905) USSR State Academy Orchestra conducted by Evgeny Svetlanov Description by James Leonard Nearly a decade since he first conceived the idea, Lyadov, the Oblomov of Russian composers, finally completed his threeandahalfminute tone poem BabaYaga in 1904. The archetypal Russian witch, BabaYaga is a small, gnomish creature whom Mussorgsky had previously depicted in music in The Hut on Hen s Legs from his Pictures at an Exhibition. Lyadov s Picture from a Russian FolkTale is set for large, late Romantic orchestra with numerous winds, brass, strings, a vast percussion section, and of course, the contrabassoon taking the witch s part. A pseudospooky evocation of the supernatural à la Dukas contemporaneous Sorcerer s Apprentice, Lyadov s BabaYaga is clearly the basis of many of Hollywood s witches, but especially the Wicked Witch of the West from The Wizard of Oz with its shrieks in the woodwinds, its glissandos in the trombones, its chromatic runs