On this Chicago Symphony Orchestra broadcast, Riccardo Muti conducts a program of creative breakthroughs. It includes Strauss’s swaggering tone poem, Don Juan, which gave the composer a career kickstart at age 25. Also featured is Bruckner’s Seventh Symphony, a work that brought him his first taste of fame and acceptance at age 60.

And to begin the program is Mussorgsky’s demonic showpiece, A Night on Bald Mountain.

Note: The audio has expired for this episode.

Mussorgsky A Night on Bald Mountain
Strauss  Don Juan, Op. 20
Bruckner Symphony No. 7 in E Major
Originally recorded at concerts in September 2016

Did you know: The first performance of Mussorgsky’s A Night on Bald Mountain in the U.S. was given on a concert of Russian folk music presented at the World’s Columbian Exposition on June 8, 1893. The Exposition Orchestra, which was the Chicago Orchestra expanded to 114 players, was led by Vojtěch I. Hlaváč, professor of music at the Imperial University in Saint Petersburg, Russia.