By the time Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov put pen to paper to compose Scheherazade, the stories on which the work is based—the exotic Arabian Nights—had been in peoples’ imaginations for centuries. As Rimsky-Korsakov explained, 

I meant these hints to direct but slightly the hearer’s fancy on the path which my own fancy had traveled. All I desired was that the hearer, if he liked my piece as symphonic music, should carry away the impression that it is beyond doubt a narrative of some numerous and varied fairy-tale wonders, and not merely four pieces played one after the other and composed on the basis of themes common to all four movements.   

Composed during the summer of 1888 and premiered in November, Scheherazade tells the story of Sultana Scheherazade, whose husband (the Sultan), believing all women were faithless, vowed to execute his wives immediately after the wedding night. Scheherazade escapes the Sultan’s edict with her ingenuity, weaving a tale she tells him over the course of 1001 nights. In four evocatively titled movements, Rimsky-Korsakov uses rich orchestration and recurring themes to bring the story to life, while a solo violin represents the voice of Scheherazade. At the very end of the piece, a peaceful coda tells us that the Sultana has finally won her husband’s heart. 

—©Jennifer More, 2023