Russian composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s (hereafter referred to as “NRK”) symphonic suite Scheherazade has many of the elements listeners are looking for in piece of classical music: sweeping grandeur, strong themes, color, and a vivid sense of musical storytelling. Connecting with a recording that might be right for you, however, can be a daunting proposition; in the digital era alone, easily more than 100 CDs have been made of the whole work and another 70 or so contain excerpted performances. Where does one begin, and how? In the Scheherazade sweepstakes, there is no clear “winner” –- far too many recordings of the work exist to permit that. However, through a little background on the work, a brief appreciation of its unusual form, and a quick survey of the different kinds of orchestras and conductors who have recorded it, we hope to guide the listener to a Scheherazade that will work on an individual basis, as opposed to dictating a choice and saying, “here’s the ship to board.”

Captain’s Log: Land Date July 16, 1888
This was the day that NRK, during his summer vacation, completed the first movement of Scheherazade, “The Sea and Sinbad’s Ship,” while situated at his dacha on Lake Cheryemenyetskoye. The voyage that led him there was a long and arduous one; just four years earlier he was finally relieved of his obligations to the Russian Navy, which he had entered as a cadet at the age of 12, moving up from officer to inspector of military bands in a career lasting 30 years. In 1871, he had joined the staff of the newly formed St. Petersburg Conservatory as a professor and in the interim had worked both full-time jobs. In the years leading up to Scheherazade, he had written and published a harmony textbook, worked as an assistant to Balakirev at the Royal Chapel, and had tidied up –- Rimsky-style — unfinished works of his friend Modest Mussorgsky, who had died in 1881. NRK’s most recent success — the opera Snegurochka (”The Snow Maiden”), had also been in ‘81, and by 1885, NRK was beginning to wonder if he might not be “written out.” The institution of a series of Russian symphony concerts by philanthropist and music lover Mitrofan Belyayev helped put new wind into NRK’s sails; in 1887 and 1888, NRK wrote the three orchestral works for which he is known best -– Capriccio Espagnol, the Russian Easter Overture, and Scheherazade; in the last case, NRK laid down his pen on August 4. NRK led the premiere of Scheherazade himself in St. Petersburg on October 28. The following year repeated it at the Exposition Universelle in Paris, where it was heard by Claude Debussy. Debussy would later redirect its influence into his own work, La mer (1903-05).

Ship’s Navigation Map
The inspiration for Scheherazade came from the Persian 1001 Nights (or Arabian Nights) although NRK likely read them in a French or English translation, as the seven voyages of Sinbad are not to be found in the original Persian sources. Scheherazade is the daughter of a vizier who has routinely executed his wives owing to his distaste for what he perceives as the inherent unfaithfulness of women. As he runs out of prospective brides, Scheherazade offers herself to him, but tells him a story nightly without revealing the ending, thus keeping herself among the quick for the better part of three years. NRK selected only a handful of tales to work into four movements which he subtitled “The Sea and Sinbad’s Ship,” “The Tale of the Kalender Prince,” “The Young Prince and the Young Princess,” and “Festival at Baghdad; The Sea; The Ship Breaks against a Cliff Surmounted by a Bronze Horseman.”
NRK put a lot of thought into whether Scheherazade was a symphony or not, but in the end, he decided on the novel form of “symphonic suite.” He had already written three symphonies, none of which he’d considered successful. Although Scheherazade is sometimes referred to as a “symphonic poem,” this is not entirely accurate –- it is a suite of four related symphonic poems, of which the last is not wholly independent as it brings material from the first movement back around, at a much slower tempo, to serve as a coda and conclusion. While César Franck’s Symphony in D Minor (1886-88) is generally adjudged the work that introduced “cyclical form” to Western symphonic music, NRK –- who cannot have known the Franck in 1888 –- does employ this device in Scheherazade. Some commentators also note a resemblance to Richard Wagner in “The Sea and Sinbad’s Ship” owing to NRK’s use of key relationships and modulation. While NRK felt a definitive impact from the work of Wagner, he did not encounter Wagner’s music until he toured to Western Europe in 1889.

Scheherazade is the only work in NRK’s catalogue that follows this scheme, and few composers have adopted the format since — Debussy in La mer, Gustav Holst’s The Planets and Charles Koechlin’s sprawling Les Bandar-Log being among relatively rare and noteworthy examples. All of NRK’s subsequent symphonic suites were extracted from his operas and, in a sense, his work as a composer of original orchestral music ended with Scheherazade.

Latitude and Longitude
NRK, being the former Navy officer that he was, plotted the course of Scheherazade very meticulously -– all four movements are set to sail for about ten minutes each, with an allowance for two and a half extra minutes to accommodate the coda in the last movement. However, no one plays the work quite this fast -– ten minutes’ duration is a little tight in the first movement, definitely too stingy for the second, and rather long for the third. Concerning recorded performances, a good indicator of how a given recording might perform is to look at the timing of the first movement; remember, in the coda the recap of the music from “The Sea and Sinbad’s Ship” in the last movement has to be slower than in the first in order to bring the vessel safely into port.

In performances of Scheherazade, there are two European-bred traditions, which we will call the “Russian” (or Slavic) and “French” traditions. The Russian tradition -– which German orchestras often follow — leans towards slower tempi and a more luxuriant string sound, and this works well for “The Sea and Sinbad’s Ship,” but can tend to be a little ponderous in “The Young Prince and the Young Princess.” Slowest of all is arch-Russian conductor Yevgeny Svetlanov, whose “The Young Prince and the Young Princess” lasts 12 minutes. The French tradition favors a bit quicker tempi, but much attention is paid to the tone quality of the winds, which in French orchestras means well-rounded horns and a fat quality to the bassoon in the second movement. The downside of the French approach can be a thin, bright sound to the string section, but this is not always a rule.

Departed legions of captains demonstrate more of a variety of approach in Scheherazade than skippers of more recent vintage. Leopold Stokowski and Ernest Ansermet –- both firmly within the French tradition and strongly associated with Scheherazade -– recorded it many times; Stokowski’s final version was made when he was 93. Herbert von Karajan was rare among German conductors in that he also recorded it several times (some German maestros find Scheherazade a less than serious outing and won’t even deal with it), and Karajan’s version focuses almost entirely on storytelling and exposition of melodic ideas. Fritz Reiner only recorded it once, and yet his RCA Living Stereo version remains extremely potent, even after nearly 50 years. Reiner’s timing scheme is particularly quirky: he has a very fast first movement and very slow third, a recipe for disaster one might think, but it for some reason known only to Reiner and Chicago, it is not. Both Karajan and Reiner’s readings are unique and belong to no discernable tradition.
 
Leopold Stokowski, London Philharmonic: The Sea and Sinbad’s Ship
Ernest Ansermet, L’Orchestre du Suisse Romande: The Tale of the Kalender Prince
Herbert von Karajan, Berlin Philharmonic: The Young Prince and the Young Princess
Fritz Reiner, Chicago Symphony Orchestra: Festival at Baghdad
 
 
At one time, Leonard Bernstein’s 1958 version with the New York Philharmonic was widely viewed as the Scheherazade to own, at least in the United States. His vision represents a rather homogenized “Americanization” of the work, laid out in big Hollywood hues and distinguished by superb violin solos by John Corigliano, father to the Academy Award winning composer of that name. However, the passage of time reveals a reckless impulsiveness, though some may well interpret this phenomenon as excitement. In terms of approach, however, Bernstein’s concept represented a new wrinkle: versions by Lorin Maazel (who has also recorded Scheherazade multiple times), Riccardo Muti, and Zubin Mehta are in line with Bernstein’s spirit: a Scheherazade from the perspective of the jet set, designed for similar results without regard to where it is played.
 

Leonard Bernstein, New York Phiharmonic: The Sea and Sinbad’s Ship
Zubin Mehta, Israel Philharmonic: The Tale of the Kalender Prince
Lorin Maazel, Berlin Phiharmonic: The Young Prince and the Young Princess
Riccardo Muti, The Philaharmonia Orchestra of London: Festival at Baghdad

 
Whereas the French tradition may have dominated the analog era, in the digital era it is the Russian/Slavic side of the equation -– represented in the distant past mainly by Antal Dorati and Kiril Kondrashin -– that has come to the fore. Digital recordings featuring conductors such as Loris Tjeknavorian, Kees Bakels, Yuri Temirkanov, Mariss Jansons, Sir Charles Mackerras, and Valery Gergiev are planted in Russian soil and certainly do not suffer for that; some would argue that this is the only “right” way to interpret Scheherazade. By 2008, however, the French, and to some degree the more cinematic American interpretations seem authoritative enough in their own right to quality as valid; it is up to you, the listener, to decide what might work best.
 

Kees Bakels, Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra: The Sea and Sinbad’s Ship
Yuri Temirkanov, New York Philharmonic: The Tale of the Kalender Prince
Sir Charles Mackerras, London Symphony Orchestra: The Young Prince and the Young Princess
Valery Gergiev, Kirov Orchestra: Festival at Baghdad
 

Traveling to Distant Shores
For those already committed to a given Scheherazade, it might be worth considering some interesting alternatives to the usual. NRK –- not a great pianist, though his wife Nadezhda Purgold was one –- made his own four-hand arrangement that makes for fulfilling listening, even if it is not so gracious to the hands of piano players. Among prehistoric recordings of Scheherazade, there are two movements only, recorded in 1919 by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra under legendary violinist Eugene Ysayë; he also pitches in on the violin solos and may have been the only conductor in recording history to do so. Then there is Naxos’ 1001 Nights, in which narrator Bernard Cribbens interweaves an adaptation of the 1001 Nights stories into the course of a very well done, if a little hasty, performance of Scheherazade by Enrique Bátíz and the Philharmonia Orchestra of London. For the weirdo in your family, there is Scheherajazz, a brainstorm of arranger Skip Martin and Somerset Records producer David L. Miller. Miller took what is probably the worst recording ever made of Scheherazade, by the Orchester des Nordwestdeutschen Hamburg (also known as 101 Strings), and spliced in sections of jazz jams led by Martin, resulting in a disjointed mix of lukewarm square and semi-hip that is most certainly un-groovy.

The author remembers a time in childhood when Scheherazade was listened to every day, for a period of months, sometimes more than once in a day. While current circumstances do not permit such luxury, Scheherazade can sound good, like your favorite flavor of the month rock album, every day. We do not recommend, however, listening to “The Sea and Sinbad’s Ship” when suffering from a hangover. Nevertheless, a recording of Scheherazade, well chosen and suited to the tastes of a given listener, should serve as a cruise to the exotic that will last a lifetime.
 

Ferhan and Ferzan Önder: Festival in Baghdad (from 4-hand piano version)
John Kirby: Arabian Nightmare
Arthur Lyman Group: Scheherazade
Undercover Ska: Scheherazade

 
 
 
 
PS:
A conductor we wished had recorded Scheherazade, but never did: Sir Georg Solti.
A conductor and orchestra that probably should record Scheherazade: Paavo Järvi and the Cincinnati Symphony.