Sunday Classics: Born to tell stories, Rimsky-Korsakov spins music's best yarns in "Scheherazade"

"The Sea and Sinbad's Ship": In 1978, near the end of his 44-year tenure with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Eugene Ormandy conducts the opening movement of Scheherazade. The violin soloist is Norman Carol, the orchestra's concertmaster from 1966 to 1994. (The whole performance can be found in customarily time-limited chunks on YouTube.)

by Ken

In last night's preview we heard Rimsky's Russian Easter Overture and Capriccio espagnol. As I threatened at the time, that wasn't the last we were going to hear of them; I can't resist starting off with one more quick hearing of each. (I couldn't resist including the performance of the Capriccio espagnol from the intriguing four CDs' worth of Rimsky, including the three symphonies and most any other orchestral work you're apt to think of, nicely done by the Malaysian Philharmonic under Dutch conductor Kees Bakels. I suppose the note of Eastern exoticism might have been more appropriate for Scheherazade, which the Malaysians in fact play very nicely, but I didn't have any openings on my Scheherazade card.)


RIMSKY-KORSAKOV: Russian Easter Overture, Op. 36

Concertgebouw Orchestra, Igor Markevitch, cond. Philips, recorded 1968


FOR OUR CAPRICCIO ESPAGNOL ENCORE HEARING
PLUS TODAY'S SCHEHERAZADE LINEUP, CLICK HERE.

#