Conductor, Sir DAN GODFREY
ION AULAY (Pianoforte)
From THE PAVILION, BOURNEMOUTH
WHEN Salammbo, Gustave Flau bert's story of Carthage, published in 1862, came into the hands] of Mussorgsky, he at once saw the possibilities of making an opera out of so congenial a subject and began work on it. He did not, however, get far with the music, and presently abandoned all thought of finishing it. What ho
- had already written was, however, used up in various ways ; for instance, this part of the music was transformed into a tone picture with a definite programme. The first title given to the work was The Eve of St. John on the bare Mountain, but Mussorgsky himself usually spoke of it as The Witches. The mountain referred to is said to be Monte Carmo in the Italian Alps, and that it is peculiar for its extreme bareness and lack of any sort of shrub-apparently a most appropriate place for a witches' Sabbath. The programme attached to the music concerns such an occasion. Unearthly voices are heard coming from beneath the ground, spirits of darkness appear. followed by Chernobog. the evil god. They hold Satanic revels, but when at dawn the village bell is heard in the distance, the dark spirits all (disappear and the music ends in tranquillity and deep peace.