Mussorgsky, Modest / arr. Rimsky-Korsakov / G. v. Einem

Preface

Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky
(b. Karevo, Gouvernement Pskov, 9/21 March 1839 – d. St. Petersburg, 16/28 March 1881)

Night on Bald Mountain
Concert Fantasy for Orchestra

reworked and orchestrated in 1886/90 by Nikolai Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov
(b. Tikhvin, Gouvernement Novgorod, 6/18 March 1844 – d. Lyubensk Estate near Luga, Gouvernement St. Petersburg, 8/21 June 1908)

New 1967/84 version with altered ending (from page 78 on) by Gottfried von Einem
(b. Bern, 24 January 1918 – d. Maissau near Hollabrunn [Lower Austria], 12 July 1996)

Preface
Modest Mussorgsky’s ’Night on Bald Mountain’ (or ’Night on the Bare Mountain’) ranks among the most popular orchestral pieces from Russia but in its well-known version this work did not come from Mussorgsky. It was composed by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, or, to be precise, the material is Mussorgsky’s contribution but the form is Rimsky-Korsakov’s contribution. Mussorgsky’s original composition bears the title ’St. John’s Night on Bald Mountain’, is more extended and ends in the ferocious character that is typical for the whole piece. Rimsky-Korsakov shortened the piece and added an idyllic and reconciliatory new end that symbolizes the atmosphere just before dawn and puts an end to the spook. Rimsky-Korsakov transferred this final section from the concluding section of the first act of Mussorgsky’s unfinished opera ’Sorochintsy Fair’.
Rimsky-Korsakov hingegen hat das Stück gekürzt und mit einem neuen, idyllisch versöhnlichen Schluss, der die anbrechende Morgendämmerung symbolisiert und dem Spuk ein Ende bereitet. Diesen Schlussteil übernahm Rimsky-Korsakov aus dem letzten Abschnitt des ersten Akts von Mussorgskys unvollendeter Oper ‚Der Jahrmarkt von Sorotschintsy’. This idea is anchored in Mussorgsky’s latest employment of the piece. Thereby, the ’Night on Bald Mountain’ as a whole changes its physiognomy completely in comparison with the composer’s original version.

The genesis of the ’Night on Bald Mountain’ is complex. In 1860, Mussorgsky wrote to Mily Balakirev (1836/37-1910) that he got a commission to set to music the drama ’The Witch’ by his friend Georgy Mengden (1836/37-1903), a task he should have fulfilled within one year: ”This work is: a whole act on the Bare Mountain (from Mengden’s drama The Witch), a witches’ sabbath, separate episodes of wizards, triumphal march of all this scum, finale – glorification of the sabbath which Mengden has personified in the ruler of the whole festivity on the Bare Mountain. The libretto is very good. I’ve already got some materials and the thing may turn out very well.”
This material originated presumably from Mussorgsky’s operatic project on Nikolai Gogol’s novel ’St. John’s Night’ that he never carried out. The musical setting of Mengden’s drama finally did not materialise as well.
In November 1864, Musorgsky completed a scene of his opera fragment ’Salammbo’ after Flaubert where he deployed material from earlier compositions. In this scene we can find a passage that is an earlier form oft he passage from letter U in the present score on…

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