Mussorgsky Night on the Bare Mountain Original Version

The familiar version of Night on the Bare Mountain is the work of RimskyKorsakov, who not only shortened Mussorgsky s original score but also reorchestrated it, added passages of his own, changed the harmonies, and largely recomposed the whole work. Mussorgsky s own orchestral composition was never played in his lifetime, though he also made a choral version for interpolation in his opera Sorochintsy Fair (recently uploaded). We hear now the first recording of Mussorgsky s original score in a performance by the London Philharmonic conducted by David LloydJones on a 1971 Philips LP. The sleeve notes state that the title on the manuscript is St. John s Night on the Bare Mountain and that there are four sections to the music: (i) Assembly of the Witches; (ii) Satan s Journey; (iii) Black Mass; (iv)