Night On Bald Mountain

This enhanced video version of a filmstrip opens with a live puppet-animated mood setter, in which two youngsters camping out, talk about the music which one has recorded. When the teens go to sleep, one has a rather nasty dream. Mussorgsky's Night on Bald Mountain is a classic pastiche of eerie strings and thunderous brass (with an element of Russian dance music tossed in.) The visuals chosen to accompany the music are a mixture of original illustrations, depicting faces in a mountain at night; and portions of Hieronymous Bosch's "Garden of Earthly Delights". The hellish visions of Bosch are admirably suited to Mussorgsky's nightmare, and the creative video enhancing techniques make the images dance, revolve, and fly across the screen. Program notes are included. Recommended. (See THE RENAISSANCE for availability.)