Thomas Beecham - Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade (1958) [2017] Hi-Res

Scheherazade, also spelled Sheherazade, orchestral suite by
Russian composer Nicolay Rimsky-Korsakov that was inspired by
the collection of largely Middle Eastern and Indian tales known as
The Thousand and One Nights (or The Arabian Nights). Exemplary
of the late 19th-century taste for program music—or, music with a
story to tell—the piece evokes an image of Scheherazade (Shahrazad), the young wife of the sultan Schahriar (Shahryar), telling
tales to her husband to forestall his plan to kill her. Colourful and
highly varied in mood, the work has a recurring violin solo that
represents Scheherazade herself and a deep, ponderous theme that
corresponds to the sultan. The composition was completed in 1888,
and it premiered on November 3 of that year, in Saint Petersburg,
with the composer himself conducting.
Scheherazade derives its themes from the evocative stories of
characters, such as Sindbad the Sailor and the woodcutter Ali Baba,
that became widely known in Europe during the 1800s.
Rimsky-Korsakov, renowned as a virtuoso of orchestral coloration,
recognized in these tales an ideal realm in which to give free rein to
his abilities. He subsequently created a work that he himself
described as “an orchestral suite…closely knit by the community of
its themes and motifs, yet representing, as it were, a kaleidoscope
of fairy-tale images.”
The suite is structured in four movements, which originally were
untitled but later were given names by Rimsky-Korsakov’s former
student Anatoly Lyadov. The first movement, “The Sea and Sindbad’s Ship,” starts with the deep, formidable “voice” of the sultan in
the winds and strings, calling for his newest wife to entertain him;
Scheherazade, represented by a light, lyrical solo violin melody,
begins to develop her tale. The second movement, “The Story of
the Kalandar Prince,” opens with Scheherazade’s now familiar
violin line, which dissolves into animated marchlike passages,
intermittently interwoven with suggestions of the sultan’s theme.
The whimsical third movement, “The Young Prince and the Young
Princess,” recounts a love story in waltz time. The theme of the
sultan, now somewhat less foreboding, introduces the agitated
finale, “Festival at Baghdad; the Sea; the Ship Goes to Pieces on
a Rock Surmounted by a Bronze Warrior,” which revisits and
recasts many of the themes from the preceding movements.
Although the names of the movements derive from the original
stories from The Thousand and One Nights, Rimsky-Korsakov
always insisted that the music was not intended as an exact
portrayal of any particular tale or any part of the collection. Other
than the ominous opening theme of the sultan and a recurring
sinuous violin solo that is intended to suggest Scheherazade
herself, no character motifs are used in the work. “In composing
Scheherazade,” wrote the composer in his memoirs,
"I meant these hints [themes] to direct but slightly the hearer’s
fancy on the path which my own fancy had traveled, and to leave
more minute and particular conceptions to the will and mood of
each.


Tracks:

1 The Sea And Sinbad's Ship 10:04
2 The Story Of The Kalender Prince 12:02
3 The Young Prince And The Young Princess 10:42
4 The Festival Of Baghdad - The Sea - The Ship Goes To Pieces On A Rock Surmounted By A Bronze Warrior 12:51

Personnel:

Thomas Beecham
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Violin – Steven Staryk