Sheherazade, Op. 35

The piece opens with a stern, low brass and wind theme, said to represent the sultan Shahriyar, answered almost immediately by a solo violin playing a winding, ornamented melody over harp, representing Sheherazade herself, the queen who spins tales to save her life. This pairing of "sultan" and "storyteller" themes returns throughout the work, tying its four movements together.

I. The Sea and Sinbad's Ship: rolling string and harp figures suggest ocean swells, while brass restate the sultan's theme now smoothed into a broad melody, and the music rises and falls like waves under a ship in motion.

II. The Tale of the Kalandar Prince: a bassoon, then oboe, spins a rambling, exotic-sounding tune, followed by brighter fanfares and quick, dance-like passages that suggest a story full of twists.

III. The Young Prince and the Young Princess: a lush, songlike melody in the strings alternates with a lighter, teasing tune on clarinet, evoking a pair of young lovers.

IV. Festival at Baghdad, the Sea, the Shipwreck: fast, whirling music builds into a full-orchestra celebration, the sea music from the first movement returns, the ship is dashed on rocks in a violent orchestral climax, and the solo violin's theme returns quietly to close the work.

Rimsky-Korsakov composed Sheherazade in the summer of 1888, drawing on stories from One Thousand and One Nights. He originally gave the four movements descriptive titles tied to specific tales, then later removed them, preferring listeners hear the work as a general evocation of an Arabian Nights atmosphere rather than a literal narrative. The piece premiered in St. Petersburg in 1888 under the composer's own baton, as part of a concert of the Russian Symphony Concerts series. It quickly became one of Rimsky-Korsakov's most popular works, admired for its orchestration, in which he gives distinct instrumental colors to different characters and moods. The recurring solo violin melody, understood to represent the queen Sheherazade telling her stories, has become one of the most recognized solo passages in the orchestral repertoire.