Expert: David Froom - 3/11/2006

Question
Where to find a Cd or tape or album containing the song "A Night on Bald Mountain". I hope I got the title right, it's actually something my husband is looking for. Any help?

Answer
Dear Jean,

This is a very popular piece, and yes, you have the name right.  The composer's name is Modest Mussorgsky.  He was Russian, and worked at the end of the 1800s into the very early 1900s.

The work itself is pretty short.  It is often packaged on a CD with Mussorgsky's other most popular work, Pictures at Exhibition.

You can probably find it on CD in your local library, and maybe in a number of different versions (different orchestras, different conductors -- these can make a huge difference in sound, once you listen a few times).

If you want to buy, you can find it online at amazon.com (you would click on music, then choose classical music, then look for mussorgsky bald mountain).  You can buy new or used, and you'll see dozens of recordings.  The famous orchestras (New York Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra) are likely to be the best, but probably most of them will be quite good.

Besides amazon.com, there are a LOT of online music stores that sell classical music.  towerrecords.com is one.  arkivmusic.com is another.  Even ebay has this kind of thing.

Also, if you have one near your house, a record store (they are getting harder to find) . . .  Often the clerks at the store can give good advice about what to buy, especially for something as popular as this.

The easiest and fastest thing to do, though, would be to go to Amazon, do the search I recommended, and buy the first one you see.  This would take you about 5 minutes, and you'd have it in the mail within a couple of days.

David Froom