The Soundtrack to One Thousand and One Nights. Ep 1 - Scheherazade by Rimsky-Korsakov
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- čas přidán 22. 08. 2024
- Classics Explained all started with this film - when we dressed up as Sultans and Scheherazade and ran around the most Arabian neighbourhoods of London: to tell YOU the story of Rimsky-Korsakov's masterpiece!
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MUSIC CREDITS:
Composer: Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
Work: Scheherazade, Op.35
Performer: London Symphony Orchestra
Conductor: Leopold Stokowski
Year: 1964
Label: London Records
Catalogue No: SPC21005
With thanks to Alex Darby for directing this video, and to Emilia Strachevskaia. - Hudba
Being a former career Naval officer who'd sailed around the world, Rimsky was a highly disciplined workaholic. When he joined the conservatory he studied music books at night to keep one step ahead of his students until he got his stuff together. You've gotta respect that.
In high school, I had a teacher like that. Loved her energy and her drive to keep improving herself.
Seeing the looks you got on the street, I see why you moved to animation 😂
And the cost!
"wot ye olde fucke is that?"
This composer brought Mussorgsky's Night on Bald Mountain to Fame, two years earlier. He was the teacher of Lyadov, Stravinsky, and Respighi.
I've sort of known the composition Scheherazade for the last 30 years or so, but this video puts it in a whole new light. Fascinating!!
Thank you! Glad you enjoyed it! Yes, knowing the story behind the music actually helps to see (or hear) it differently.
Love all the dirty looks at 2:51!
I’ve always thought of the end of the piece as pretty sad. Although Scheherazade saved the lives of many women, she gave up her own right to marry whoever she wanted, and was forever left stuck with a psychopathic husband. It’s always given me the impression of “we’ve won, but at what cost?”
Nice saying 👍
Naaaahhh!!! She fell for the prince.
Fokine's and Bakst's Ballet version shifts the focus away from Scheherazade and her tales and twords the sultan's violent backstory with similar plot to Leoncavallo's I Pagliacci, and Ragnarök- the Norse End of Days, is also my interpretation of Scheherazade.
Eh, she gets to be Queen, have all whims catered to & gets vast power when her kids inherit the position of "King of Kings"/Shahanshah.
In polygamous monarchies, a ruler may have multiple wives but he only has One Mother. In such a culture, the ruler's mother has always been THE most powerful woman in the kingdom/empire. So, when life throws ya lemons, make lemonade.
In the novel, the Shah's a pretty great dude & ruler until both he & his brother catch their 1st wives (who they genuinely loved & adored) cheating on them with multiple men. The Shah suffers from some kind of psychosis & does a 180 from who he used to be.
Scheherezade dispels all that hate, distrust & insanity from the Shah by being her brilliant, gorgeous, virtuous, witty self. He snaps out of his paranoid, murderous stoop, realizes what he's done & comes to love & cherish her dearly.
So, still horrific for all the dead, but Scheherezade's future isn't too bad.
I haven't seen a youtube video this good in my entire life
Finally started reading Arabian Nights while listening to this music and you will forget where you are for a good few hours.
This youtube channel is a gem 🙌🏼😍
thank you so much!!
CZcams! Why have you not recommended this amazing channel to me until now!? Absolutely GOLD!
Waw we need a weekly epsiodes like this . thank you very much
Thank you! Can't guarantee weekly, but we are working hard to produce them more regularly
Thank you for your warm feedback! Weekly would be doable if we had more support :) www.patreon.com/classics
Rimsky-Korsakov is best knwon, beyond Scheherazade, for reviving Mussorgsky's Night on Bald Mountain, along with Russian Easter Overture, Flight of the Bumblebee, and Christmas Eve (After Gogol).
Brilliant this was one of Rimsky’s compositions that got me hooked so much so that in 1980 I went into a UK 🇬🇧 tv show mastermind with the mighty handful as a specialist subject. I borrowed Rimsky’s autobiography to learn all about him and the five. He detailed the training cruise as a cadet during which time he completed a movement of his first symphony keeping in touch with Balakeriv the de facto head by letter. At the end back in St Petersburg he took up once more and composed Symphony No2 subtitled Antar though when more skilled in music he realised that it was a symphonic suite and a piece related to the sea Sadko, he later expanded this into a full blown opera one of his most popular one,upon which he was offered a professorship at the conservatory as your video outlined he knew little about nuts and bolts of music and became the conservatory’s best pupil to remedy this. As an extra l learned a bit of Russian to help with any pronunciation however I didn’t make it to the tv screen but made it to the audition.
What an amazing story! Thank you for this - wonderfully fascinating subject!
Love that you satirize Orientalism in your video by turning the Orientalism up to 11, ha
This made me look up why legends from Persia were called "Arabian nights", I had forgotten the reason was they were first compiled in the Arabic language and then translated to English under that title. The more you know...
I've always wondered.
The more you know, indeed.
this was my mother's favorite pieces of music. I still play it in her memory on her birthday.
Amazing video! I always play this piece when it’s raining on my commute to school. I would love to see a Daphnis et Chloe video!
So glad I discovered this channel and this series! Classical music was my first music genre growing up after hearing Mozart as a baby. I love that these videos not only explain the pieces but give the history of it and where the composer got the idea.
This means so much to us, Emily - thanks. What you've said encapsulates exactly what we're aiming for. There are so many people making art history or other sorts of history "cool" out there on youtube. It's rarely done for classical music - one of the few artforms still generally regarded by the public (I think) as pretty antiquanted and beyond any sort of reasonable access. But you as a baby listening to Mozart knows that can't be true
Oh Diaghalev. Always working to shock and awe.
Echos of Leoncavallo's I Pagliacci, Puccini's Tosca, and Bizet's Carmen appear in Fokine and Bakst's version.
Rimsky-Korsakov was also part of the Belyayev circle with students such as Glazunov (of The Sea, The Forest, Spring, The Seasons, Chanteurs de Noel, etc.), and Lyadov (of Baba Yaga, the Enchanted Lake, & Kikimora).
I know you probably cringe when you realize people are watching the oldest stuff, but this was absolutely charming in a Horrible Histories sort of way. Also, I noticed the fun cinematography, and I don't often notice that kind of thing, so well done!
Thank you! I love this comment - we do cringe a little looking back to Scheherazade, but actually the Horrible Histories thing was precisely what we were going for! Well spotted :)
@@ClassicsExplained I just rewatched it and I think it is really refreshing and fun. No need to cringe at it :)
OMG Can we have another episode done in this style please? pleeeeeease?🥺
I love it tooo much
I like what John Adams said about it. This is some of the most beautiful music written about one of the worst situations ever.
Once again, this was so much fun. Very much appreciated.
This is great! Waiting for next episode.
The children insisted on listening to this twice - now I shall have to go & buy the cd.
What a wonderful introduction to classical music!!!
More, please!
Hi Rashna, thank you so much for your feedback! Great to hear that your kids enjoyed the video too! Yes, we are producing more videos, so stay tuned :)
Best video ever! I will watch all of your videos aaaaa
Thank you so much for your support!
I just watched ep 10 and I am hooked! so im gonna watch every single video
I can confirm that I have watched everything
@@chip715715 me too :)
Ohh my goodness. Please bring the live-action stuff back.
Especially if those ladies are involved...
LOL! One day...
Thanks very much for this video. Love and peace from Ontario Canada 💕
As a music teacher but virgin to “Classics Explained”, we’ve got to get these into the hands of my colleagues all over the world. These are magnificent. I don’t think they can be used for the kids I teach though, (k-8). Too racy, but I love them. You guys are brilliant and super creative.
Thank you so much - this is super appreciated, your comment :)
The Second Movement and Last movement quotes Dies Irae. The ballet by Fokine and Bakst focusses on the violence of the sultan's backstory with similar plot to Leoncavallo's I Pagliacci. La commedia è finita!
Magnificent storytelling!
thank you! glad you enjoyed
Yeap, Scheherazade deserve it!
He also is known for Flight of the Bumblebee.
Major Event in history of Musical Eschatology, thanks to Ballets Russes version with Leon Bakst's Designs and Michel Fokine's Choreography. the closet ballet to Bizet's Carmen and Leoncavallo's I Pagliacci.
this feels so nerdy but THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THIS CHANNEL! best good quick info i can get on new fascinating pieces i find thank you very very much 💙
one of my favorite bassoon excerpts
Superb. Clear, insightful and funny.
Wonderful Wonderful !!! Thank you so very much for this!
Thank you! This was our very first video. We have much improved since then :) I hope you'll enjoy other videos too!
Ben this is brilliant! I knew you would go on to do great things! Very good video indeed.
He is also known for his Russian Easter Overture.
Thank you!❤️
Thank YOU
0:22 He's never getting heirs with that plan.
Wow! Brilliant! Thank you and encore!!!
THIS IS AMAZING PLEASE KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK!!!
thanks so much :)
Happy 7th anniversary to classics explained 🎉
People's reaction on churchstreet market, that's hilarious!!!
OMG LMAO!!! That was awesome!!!
Thanks!!
Great pieces for this channel would be
Matthäus Passion/ Bach
Carmen/ Bizet
Lied von der Erde/Mahler
11 Symphonie/ Shostakovich
West Side Story/ Bernstein
I agree with this!
I love this episode!!!!
also l love the recording quality!
He also composed Christmas Eve Suite after Gogol.
Great stuff! Thank you.
Brilliantly dome mate ! Big thank you !
Thank you for watching!
What a FANTASTIC video!😍😂
dude you need to start making videos again!
Now I know, thanks for the video!
Brilliant
Thank you! Glad you enjoyed
I love how the Sultan came up with that plan even though Sultanites being a monarchy are passed through generations. There's no way he doesn't know it takes 9 months for a baby to come out. I mean to be fair, by the time that's a problem he'll be dead, so it's not like it's his problem.
Fokine and Bakst's version from 1910 looks alot like Leoncavallo's Pagliacci.
Love it, you got a new fan now :)
Hooray! :)
Great stuff! Waiting for next episode.
Why aren't there more of these reenactments in the other videos!
VERY GOOD ! Unexpected, loved the looks that the people on the street gave you. Still laughing. Do Wellingtons Victory. Really good job. And I have the original LP that you credited for the music. No wonder the performance sounded familiar.
Monty Python on classics! :-)
That's a good one :) Thanks!
You should make Scheherazade shorts.
Rimsky sounds like John Cleese in drag.
on about the "arabian" influence, why not make an episode about the "Recuerdos de la Alhambra", by Tárrega?
Quotes Dies Irae in Second Movement and in final movment.
Ragnarök- the Norse End of Days, is my interpretation of Scheherazade.
I never knew there was a piece for this story.. but this book of a 1000 and 1 night was the first book I ever attempted to read in my life (I think I quit .. it was too long)
But I never knew that there was a reasons to why she was telling these stories;-;
Idk
Nvm
People staring. 😅
Super cute UwU
Hey! Look at "the voice"! literally... haha. Interesting and very funny videos! though the speed of the speech seems to be on heavy speeding drugs... I watched it at 0.75 speed to be able to catch up everything... xD
Thanks for your kind feedback! I swear no drugs involved :) We are just trying to fit lots of information in a short video. We'll try to slow down a bit.
4:38 Uh, yeah…
-Brad Pitt
It must be Shérzādi
WHAT is that horrible effect that creators are using that cuts out the Beginning of every other line? Why are you doing that? The videos are so awesome. It would be good to hear what you’re saying.
Thanks for your comment and compliment. Not sure what the effect is? We tried our best with the sound, but this was also our first video so hope we have refined the quality since way back then :)
I always thought the Sultan theme sounded like Godzilla. I keep expecting to hear the roar after the first few chords.
You're cute
Bro it's not fucking Persia the story is from it's from IRAQ in BAGHDAD that what history said that is why it's could ARABIAN NIGHTS
This is not correct. The roots of the story lie both in Indian fables written in Sanskrit and Persian storytelling. Just look at the name Scheherazade which is derived from Persian roots. Shahriyar was Persian Sassanid. The first English language version catalysed the tales as the “Arabian” nights.
@@ClassicsExplained Bro you arguing the wrong person if can get your hand on the old ARABIC VERSION you then maybe change your mind it's 100% ARABIC and it's from IRAQ BAGHDAD that is for sure
Didn’t the guy in the car know the two girls are actually men??!!
Just ignore the..cultural appropriation And you will have a fantastic time
Fun video, but unfortunately chalk full of cultural appropriation.
I don't see any cultural appropriation in this. It is an explanatory video that attempts to ellucidate Rimsky-Korsakov's own "Orientalist" leanings. My own view is that he was celebrating the music of the Middle East; not paradoying it in any grotesque or offensive fashion. I believe borrowing from other cultures to be part and parcel of what makes cultural production so rich and varied. In no way am I (the presenter) attempting to mock any other culture. If we had the money, we would have got Persian actors to play the roles, although I am partly Persian myself.
@@benjaminlevy3191 Even if you weren't, fake "orientalness" for fake "oriental" composition would fit nicely.
Aside from the cultural appropriation this is a great video
This is great! Waiting for next episode.