Night on Bald (Bare) Mountain for PIANO solo!

[Lance]

I do believe that this is the first time I have encounted Mussorgsky's (St. John's) Night on Bare (Bald) Mountain played on the piano. I speak of a Harmonia Mundi disc [HMA 1951266] by pianist Brigitte Engerer, recorded in 1987 in France.

I was interested in learning more about the art of Brigitte Engerer, having greatly enjoyed an LP recording of the music of Franz Schubert on the Philips label (now deleted, never transferred to CD).

This all-Mussorgsky disc includes Pictures at an Exhibition; [Night on Bare Mountain[/i]; Gopak; Scherzo in C# Minor; A Tear; Nurse and I;, and A Memory of Childhood.

We learn from annotator Jacques Drillon that no original piano version—or orchestral version—is extant today. The Bald Mountain piece was originally to be written for concertante piano and orchestra. It was Rimsky-Korsakov who published the orchestral score and no one really knows how involved he was, but he at least re-arranged the order of Bald Mountain and Pictures. As Drillon points out: "But what a surprise, in the end, to hear this Night on Bare Mountain as it has never before sounded on the piano! What a joy to residover all the ebullient and fantastic qualitiees Mussorgsky put into it before Rimsky-[Korsakov] added his colours! And we should pay tribute to the memory of the composer of Pictures and Night for this prodigious and purely pianistic palette that he, like Liszt, offered to our modern ears. A palette so rich that such fervent orchestrators as Rimsky and Ravel could not resist it."

I have been disappointed in some of Engerer's playing, most notably her all-Schumann CD [HMC 901600]. On the Mussorgsky disc, her pianism and playing, however, takes on almost Horowitzian characteristics, i.e. a huge piano sound, technical security (this piece requires some risk-taking), leaving us near breathless by the time Bare Mountain concludes.

The balance of the disc, a delightful Gopak, and the other pieces played with equal success. It may help to know why Engerer's work in Russian piano music sounds so exquisite: She earned her diploma from the Tchaikovsky State Conservatory in Moscow where Stanislaw Neuhaus was her teacher for nine years. (Stanislaw is the son of the legendary piano pedagogue, Heinrich Neuhaus, who apparently inherited from his father an extraordinary ability to teach.)

I'm jogging my memory, but does anyone else know of a PIANO version of Night on Bald (Bare) Mountain. Would you please call my attention to it?

[Febnyc]

I don't know of another piano version of Night on Bald (Bare) Mountain. But, on the subject, there is a wonderful disc of pieces from Mussorgsky operas on the BIS (BIS-905) label - performed beautifully by Noriko Ogawa. This unusual repertoire accompanies a very good performance of Pictures at an Exhibition.

[hcday]

I'm jogging my memory, but does anyone else know of a PIANO version of Night on Bald (Bare) Mountain. Would you please call my attention to it?

Hi Lance, thanks for the tip about Engerer, I don't know her playing at all and look forward to finding out more (when funds allow!). Re the Mussorgsky, I've had a performance by Boris Berezovsky, on Teldec, for some years now. It's a single-disc recital of russian romantic rep including a few tales by Medtner, a definite passion of mine, about whom B.B. organised a festival some years back. The disc appears to have been discontinued but here's the amazon link: http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASI ... 45-2249446

I don't have the disc in front of me so I'm not certain which transcription he plays but I believe it's the one by Tchernow. I have this in PDF format and if you'd like a copy please contact me privately.

All the best,
Henry