March 25-26, 2017: One of my all-time favorite pieces of classical music has been the orchestral suite ‘Scheherazade’, by Russian composer Nicolai Rimsky Korsakov. Scheherazade is the musical telling of the Arabian Nights, and how the young Scheherazade became queen by telling her king a story that lasted 1001 nights. In 2012, composer John Adams attended an exhibition on Scheherazade, which inspired him to write a modern day version of the famous legend. In this edition of Intermountain Classics, I am pleased to present a brand new recording of Adams’ beautiful new work, Scheherazade.2.
And during the second hour of the program will be a wonderful happy 332nd “birthday bash” to Johann Sebastian Bach, with music featuring strings, piano and a beautiful choral cantata celebrating Palm Sunday.
Hour 1:
Intro: Rimsky-Korsakov-Scheherazade "The Young Prince and the Young Princess" Intro [1.32]
Intro Commentary: John Adams on Scheherazade.2 (John Adams, composer) [4.07]
John Adams-Scheherazade 2 (St. Louis Symphony/David Robertson, Leila Josefowicz, violin) [48.49]
I. Tale of the Wise Young Woman-Pursuit by the True Believers
II. A Long Desire (Love Scene)
III. Scheherazade and the Men with Beards
IV. Escape, Flight, Sanctuary
Hour 2:
Bach JS-Brandenburg Cto. No. 3 (Freiburg Baroque Orchestra/Hans Hadull) [10.21]
Bach JS-Piano concerto in D minor (excerpt) (The Mariinsky String Orchestra/Anton Gakkel,
Polina Osetinskaya, piano) [7.52]
Bach JS-Palm Sunday Cantata (Frankfurter Kantoreien and Bach Collegium, Stuttgart) [29.12]
