Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade, Tsar Saltan - Suite, The Flight of the Bumble Bee

Rimsky-Korsakov’s 1888 suite for symphony orchestra is a dazzling evocation of 19th-century Russian “orientalism”. Conjuring exotic tableaux in the most vivid colours, Scheherazade’s four movements evoke an intensely animated Arabian vision. Inspired by the folk stories of the Islamic Golden Age, Rimsky-Korsakov composed music based on characters and events of One Thousand and One Nights. Christopher Warren-Green is best-known as a conductor, but before he took to the rostrum, he was leader of London’s Philharmonia Orchestra. His solos in this recording of Scheherazade are utterly beguiling, and Vladimir Ashkenazy achieves a seductive performance from the orchestra. The album is completed with the orchestral suite from Rimsky-Korsakov’s opera The Tale of Tsar Saltan and a thrilling, full-orchestra rendition of his much-loved “The Flight of the Bumblebee”.