Scheherazade

Scheherazade is the narrator of the Middle Eastern folk anthology One Thousand and One Nights, where the fantastical tales she tells divert her husband, the misogynistic Sultan Schariar, from his usual practice of killing each wife he marries after just one nuptial night together. In 1887, Rimsky-Korsakov conceived a work based loosely on Scheherazade’s stories, aiming to create “an Oriental narrative of some numerous and varied fairy-tale wonders”. This four-movement work was the result, brilliantly vivid in its imagery and orchestration. In the opening movement, “The Sea and Sinbad's Ship”, we hear first the crushing brass motif associated with the brutal Sultan and then the sinuous solo violin motif of Scheherazade. Sweeping waves of orchestral sound evoke a restless ocean, with an authentic vividness deriving from Rimsky-Korsakov’s early career in the Russian navy. “The Tale of the Kalandar Prince” has intricate solos for clarinet and bassoon, with thrumming accompaniments. In “The Young Prince and the Young Princess”, seductive melodic writing suggests love is in the air, while in the finale a massive shipwreck is depicted. The last word goes to the solo violin of Scheherazade—poetic, lingeringly mysterious and an eloquent survivor of her husband’s grim penchant for marital violence.