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It was in the return of the love theme that was initiated with the greatest delicacy that elevated the movement from the whimsical to the sublime.

Showcases of pure virtuosity by Denis Matsuev and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, under Leonard Slatkin, in performances of both Rachmaninov’s Third Piano Concerto and Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade at Ravinia.

Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto is every inch the warhorse asScheherazade, yet with Ott there was never a sense of routine.

Liverpool’s Philharmonic Hall was plunged into luscious sunshine with music from across the Tropics. The first half was filled with the sounds of Latin America before a nautical Arabian tour.

Zubin Mehta and the Berlin Philharmonic have an extraordinary relationship lasting over five decades. In three performances in the Philharmonie, Mehta paired a piece from the core of his romantic repertoire with a new percussion concerto.

An evening of different musical flavours, but none, as yet, are quite distinctive on the palate.

Jakub Hrůša and Simon Trpčeski with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra impress at Lincoln Center with a programme of works from Central and Eastern Europe. 

A globally-connected journey of exoticism: Yu Long delivers with Scheherazade.

Gustavo Gimeno conducts a program anchored by Scheherazade as well as a cello concerto by Ginastera, featuring Cleveland Orchestra principal Mark Kosower.

Robert Spano led the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra closed out its regular season with a thrilling Scheherezade.

Simon Trpčeski tackles a solo piano arrangement of Rimsky-Korsakov's orchestral masterpiece along with gentler Grieg and Mendelssohn. 

The latest concert in the LPO's “Changing Faces: Stravinsky’s Journeys” series focussed on storytelling of the symphonic kind. 

Thomas Søndergård's Scheherezade is overactive, but their concerto soloist is one of the family

After hearing three exhilarating and razor-sharp Philharmonia concerts this season under Esa-Pekka Salonen and Jakub Hrůša, this performance with regular guest conductor Yuri Temirkanov felt decidedly “Old School”.

Under the indefatigable Valery Gergiev, the Mariinsky Orchestra took to the Cadogan Hall stage for the first of two colourful programmes pairing Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov with his pupil, Igor Stravinsky.

The BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus conducted by James Gaffigan, with two stellar soprano soloists, deliver a maritime-themed programme of pieces by Korngold, Anders Hillborg and Rimsky-Korsakov.

The Orchestre Pasdeloup contributes tales to the Philharmonie's Mille et une Nuits festival of music inspired by the Orient. 

Paul Jacobs bring Rouse's Organ Concerto to DC.

Lalo's sunny slice of Seville formed the centrepiece of a programme by the BSO and James Gaffigan that completely lived up to its seductive “Exotic Spice” billing.

Irish mezzo soprano Rachel Kelly joins the Ulster Orchestra in an evening of richly coloured orchestration and exotic flavour, conducted by Jac van Steen. 

Thrilling Franck, good clean fun in Rimsky-Korsakov and an impressive Berliner Philharmoniker debut from Nikolai Lugansky in Rachmaninov's Paganini Rhapsody.

Susanna Mälkki had another memorable outing with the CSO in coloristic works of Debussy and Rimsky-Korsakov along with a Bartók violin concerto commanded by Gil Shaham.

The Istanbulite audience of symphonic music made a huge step forward in their sound worlds thanks to BIPO and the piano duo Ufuk & Bahar Dördüncü.

Orchestral fairy tales and a Rachmaninov concerto make for satisfying fare at Symphony Hall, Birmingham.  

Harriet Krijgh and Gustavo Gimeno excel in their Liverpool debuts, and the RLPO earn a rapturous reception for a ravishing Scheherazade, destined to remain long in the memory. 

Sir Mark Elder conducts the Hallé in Mussorgsky, Rachmaninov with Sunwook Kim and Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade.

I’m not sure where Sinbad was sailing to in the St Petersburg Philharmonic’s Prom last night, but he sure wanted to get there in a hurry. A frenetic – and thrilling – performance of Scheherazade displayed great impetuosity. 

A double bill at the Birgitta Festival staged Scheherazade and the Polovtsian Dances, both performed in costumes and on sets based on the original designs dating from around 1910.

This was a concert that provided the opportunity for so many individual musicians to shine and the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra’s shone brightly, showcasing its truly amazing talent. 

Thanks to wild talent of soloist and conductor, a strikingly new take on some familiar work and a standout concert in Houston Symphony's season so far.

Much-loved favourites wrapped around an assured early Beethoven piano concerto with Elisabeth Leonskaja.

Sinuous and seductive, wily and beguiling, Scheherazade can prove a handful for many conductors. Do you try to tame her capricious moods or succumb to her will? Kirill Karabits allowed Clio Gould and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra to relate the tale at their own pace. 

Stately fun and stormy exoticism: Maxim Vengerov appears as soloist and conductor in a programme of Beethoven and Rimsky-Korsakov at the Barbican.

There is more common than meets the eye to the three works on the programme by the St Louis Symphony Orchestra in the Powell Hall on Saturday night. The rhythmic diversity in each challenges the unity of the orchestra to the extreme.

Like the casket-full of pearls with which the concubines bribe the chief eunuch in Scheherazade, a lavishly decorated curtain reveals the jewels of the Russian Seasons of the XXI Century at the London Coliseum. Andris Liepa, a former Bolshoi Ballet dancer now turned impresario, has adopted the role of a contemporary Diaghilev and brought precious choreographies and artists to London.

The great impresario Sergei Diaghilev faced many challenges when presenting his Ballets Russes in Paris at the turn of the 20th century (remember the near riot at the première of Le Sacre du Printemps?), and some things never change.

Spaniard Pablo Gonzalez made his second appearance with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic in an all-Russian programme of mixed success, pairing a slightly routine Rachmaninov Second Piano Concerto with a thrilling account of Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade.Gonzalez and soloist H.J.

Tonight’s concert opened with the warm string tones and broad, sweeping phrases of Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen Suite; the UK première of a little-known arrangement by František Jílek.

Four years ago, Maxim Vengerov suffered a shoulder injury that temporarily incapacitated him as a performing violinist. After four years of recuperation and in his one-night-only appearance in Toronto, Mr Vengerov took on a dual identity – as a violin soloist in the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto and then as a violinist–conductor in Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade, with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra.

Sometimes, when hearing an instrumentalist’s debut with an orchestra on a tight schedule of concerts and rehearsals, an encore tells you even more about the quality of the soloist than the concerto that precedes it. Such was the case here, as young superstar Daniil Trifonov obliged a typically generous audience at Lincoln Center with Liszt’s transcription of Schumann’s “Widmung”.

The beautiful thing about music is that it can be a physical embodiment of passion. Violinist Andrew Haveron’s performance of Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto on Thursday night in Dublin occasionally felt like it lacked a bit of passion, dazzlingly virtuosic though his performance was.

Many Hong Kong Philharmonic concerts in the 2011-2012 season have descriptions attached to them. The one for Friday was “Story Time.” The stories of the first and last works on the programme, Ravel’s Mother Goose Suite and Scheherazade by Rimsky-Korsakov were clear enough; though that of the Mozart Piano Concerto no. 9 in E flat, K271, was a little more obscure.

Quelle générosité de couleurs dans ce programme russe que nous offre l'Orchestre de Paris pour sa reprise tant attendue des concerts avec public !

Neben Prokofjews Erstem Violinkonzert glitzerte das Orchestre National de France unter Lionel Bringuier in Debussy und Rimsky-Korsakow.

El magnífico Emmanuel Pahud era el atractivo principal de una velada que incluía el Concierto para flauta de Khachaturian además de Scheherazade de Rimsky-Korsakov.

La Orquesta Filarmónica de Oslo, con el laureado Vasily Petrenko a la batuta, en Madrid, un concierto remarcable en el que el solista, Simon Trpčeski, demostró una técnica y claridad pianística abrumadora.

Gergiev y la Orquesta del Teatro Mariinsky reviven de manera excelsa el vínculo entre la gran tradición musical rusa y el folclore español durante su primera intervención en el Festival de Granada. 

Ein technisch perfektes Tonhalle-Orchester unter Lionel Bringuier fesselt mit Honegger und einem umwerfenden Klavierkonzert Brittens.

La Filarmónica de San Petersburgo se presentó de la mano de Ibermúsica, ambos mantienen una relación de ya 46 años que únicamente se explica al socaire de la preocupación por ofrecer música (especialmente la que comparte denominación de origen) con el mayor cuidado y al más alto nivel.

Orientalische Sujets spielen in der Musikgeschichte schon seit dem Barock eine Rolle. Die Münchner Symphoniker präsentierten die Orientbegeisterung der Komponisten in einem spannenden Programm im Münchner Brunnenhof.