What if, for just one evening, the boundary between reality and imagination were to disappear? One Thousand and One Nights lead us into a world of sensuality, mystery and desert landscapes, where every motif becomes a story woven from dusk until dawn.

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, the father of an orchestral style that dominated the imagination of countless composers and audiences well into the first half of the 20th century, was renowned for an unparalleled timbral imagination, which he brought to life through the medium of the symphony orchestra. His Scheherazade, inspired by One Thousand and One Nights, became one of the greatest evergreens of classical music almost immediately after its premiere. Written long before the advent of sound cinema, it continues to captivate audiences with its sweeping narrative and vivid imagery, which have inspired generations of film composers.

Scheherazade remains an extraordinary and richly layered work – a suite filled with fairy-tale narrative, psychological tension and 19th-century visions of the Orient. Rimsky-Korsakov himself stressed, however, that he had no intention of illustrating the stories literally. In time, he became increasingly frustrated that audiences treated the work as programme music, attaching too much importance to its individual titles and scenes. His intention was rather to awaken the imagination, creating music that evokes an atmosphere of mystery, adventure and storytelling that resists any single interpretation.

For many years, the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra has ranked among Europe’s finest symphony orchestras, admired for its virtuosity, precision and exceptional refinement of sound. Under Krzysztof Urbański's baton, Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade acquires an added intensity, dramatic tension and cinematic sweep. Urbański is regarded as one of today's most charismatic conductors, and his interpretations are renowned for their energy and exceptional finesse in revealing the orchestra’s finest nuances of sound.

Maria Peryt