Halloween on Bald Mountain​: Mussorgsky, Liszt, and Stravinsky

Overview

Composers often explored the mystery and finality of death in their work, and the reaper's specter itself animates this FWSO program of supernatural bon bons. Liszt's "Totentanz," or "Dance of the Dead," invokes the same Gregorian "Dies Irae" chant that now features in so many films focused on mortality. In Stravinsky's Pétrouchka, gloriously colorful orchestrations call a dead puppet's spirit from beyond the grave, and Rimsky-Korsakov resurrected Mussorgsky's now-seminal A Night on Bald Mountain and its music witches sabbath to cause generations of listeners to enjoy a slight shiver.