The scenario was divided between the composers without any explicit concern for unity or stylistic coherence: Cui set the first act, Mussorgsky and
Rimsky-Korsakov divided the middle two between them, and Borodin was to work with the final act.
That opening mention also referred to
Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade.
When Mujic was creating "Scheherazade and Her Tales," he intended to maintain the basic idea
Rimsky-Korsakov had when he talked about a personal approach to the themes, the freedom of interpretation, and the respect for abstraction.
Rimsky-Korsakov was a master orchestrator, lending his orchestrating talents to completing works by, among others, his friends and colleagues Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky and Alexander Borodin.
The works by
Rimsky-Korsakov and Brahms are significantly reduced even though they both contain materials from the major thematic sections.
Professional musician, Oliver Lewis, 39, completed his fast fiddle rendition of the
Rimsky-Korsakov piece live on the long-running BBC children's program Blue Peter overnight.
The programme opened with
Rimsky-Korsakov's fantasy take of Tsar Sultan Suite, half lighthearted flourish, half tearful strings, while the quartet of Russian pieces was completed by a something-and-nothing oddity - Stravinsky's Scherzo la Russe.
Children will relate to Bumble's problems and will respond to the illustrations and wonderful music of The Flight of the Bumblebee by
Rimsky-Korsakov on the CD.
Mooser's essays include observations on composers such as Tchaikovsky and
Rimsky-Korsakov, and the relative merits of the Russian arts (not to mention his love for the cuisine).
Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade; Borodin: Symphony No.
The arias from Tchaikovsky's lolanta and Eugene Onegin are a delight, but the highlights for me are the songs from the little-performed operas of
Rimsky-Korsakov - rich, fiery and thrilling.